Vladimír Hain

By Vladimír Hain and Roman Hajtmanek

Industrial heritage provides one of the most important records of social and technological progress and has international potential for education and development. This chapter presents the potential to use the virtual reality devices for informal education in technical and natural sciences. The hypothetical virtual appearance of an industrial power plant from the nineteenth century in Slovak city of Piešťany was intricately reconstructed by a combination of identified conserved valuable parts of the building and preserved original equipment and archival plans. This practical result—interactive virtual tool—educates about the lost heritage by allowing viewers to look closer and experience the former atmosphere of industrial work. During the virtual visits, users are motion tracked and invited to take photographs to mark the most interesting motives. Gathered data from this users’ observation were analyzed to find behavioral patterns and to give feedback information about the exhibition’s attractivity, used in further presentations.

Part of the book: Virtual Reality and Its Application in Education

By Vladimír Hain and Roman Hajtmanek

The chapter ‘Mixed reality in the presentation of industrial heritage development’ is aimed at exploring opportunities for collaboration between theoretical research, monument preservation, virtual reality and architectural practice. It deals with the identified key factors that conditionally affect the quality and efficiency of architectural design process of architects within the cooperation in the conservation process of industrial heritage as well as the opportunities of transfer the research results from futuristic disciplines. For this purpose, the chapter examines the case study ‘the reconstruction of Old Power Plant in city Piešťany’ and describes possible solutions on the basis of the Mixed reality (MR). The opportunity to experience the industrial object with multiple senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch) in MR delivered a unique personalized experience and immersive memories about lost heritage.

Part of the book: Mixed Reality and Three-Dimensional Computer Graphics

By Vladimír Hain, Roman Hajtmanek and Dušan Kočlík

Virtual restoration of the extinct heritage is a method of reconstruction of an already destroyed work in a virtual environment. It represents a way and an opportunity to reenter the remodeled simulated space interactively and experience its contemporary atmosphere and former author expression. In addition to visual and acoustic experiences, haptic technologies represent the potential for expanding sensory perception, which is not yet sufficiently used in the architectural sector. This study focuses on defunct and endangered works of interior architecture and industrial heritage, which were significant at the time of their inception and shaped the direction of the industry. Especially in the case of cultural and spiritual heritage, we focus on interiors, which, by their short-term nature, are neither objective nor physically documentable. Selected extinct works for which there was enough data or there was still the possibility of consultation with a living author were experimentally virtually reconstructed. Using haptic technologies, we have expanded the observer’s ability to interactively analyze space and its context through User Tracking of observers. The data obtained in this way continue to help the creators of the architecture set new starting points and limits for the current creation and design as well.

Part of the book: Haptic Technology