Virtual Reality as Technology for Culture
Virtual Reality as Technology for Culture
  • archivist
  • 승인 2005.10.01 12:01
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

Virtual Reality is a subject of rising importance since it is representative of the expanding interface between human beings and computers. Kim Jounghyun is an associate professor in computer science and engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). He has contributed the following article on virtual reality, to follow the first which appeared in the Korea IT Times April issue. In this article, I would like to discuss the potential of virtual reality technology for the increasingly important area of culture. As Korea is realizing its dream to accomplish 20,000 dollars per capita and approach into a more affluent society, people are naturally spending more time and money for their leisure and enriching their living experience, for instance, attending cultural events, traveling, playing games, or simply enjoying the media like television and movie programs. Thus, culture is not only important in the way of our lives, but also will be an important part of our future economy. While the word, "culture," carries many different meanings and can be exhibited in many forms, culture is undoubtedly very much relevant to information technology. For instance, computer and mobile communication networks allow us to enjoy various digital contents, and has to power to proliferate the underlying culture. At the same time, the competitiveness of a communication medium depends on that of the contents and the universality of the underlying culture. Recognizing such an importance, Ministry of Information Communication, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Culture and Tourism are all joining forces to promote and develop a strong base for, what is called, the "Cultural Technology (CT)." In this sense, virtual or mixed reality is central to cultural technology, because a big part of culture is in experiencing it, and VR is essentially the only medium that allows such a thing. Let us take an example. There used to be a very famous Buddhist Temple called the Hwang Yong Temple. Unfortunately, this temple from the Shilla dynasty was burned down during the Japanese invasion in the 16th century and only the empty lot remains today. The mock-up version is on exhibition at the museum, and it has been reconstructed digitally as well. Another way of appreciating the beauty and aura of this temple is to apply mixed reality technology as illustrated in Figure 1. In the figure, the user is holding a mixed reality device, a mobile terminal equipped with a camera (like the usual PDA), toward the empty lot of where the Hwang Yong Temple used to be. What is seen through the display of the terminal is an overlay of the digitally reconstructed version of the temple over the actual scene. This way, the user can have much more appreciation of and directly experience how the temple might have been in relation to the surrounding environment. Of course, other additional objects and effects can be inserted such as monks and people of Shilla dressed in traditional costumes, text or voice explanation of what is going on and traditional Shilla music in the background. In fact, virtual reality technology is extensively used in the area of cultural heritage. Figure 2 shows another actual virtual reality system and contents developed by the Centre of Advanced Media Technology in Singapore. Illustrated in the figure is a virtual dinner table of the Peranakans, the early Chinese settlers in Singapore. Differently from the usual viewing of the artifacts in the museum, visitors and users of the system can interact with the virtual objects and learn, experience and get a closer glimpse in their ways of life. Our society is being transformed into a knowledge based one, and as such the efficient transfer of information has become very important. The statement is true not only between computers but also between human users and computers. While the information technology paradigm has come a long way evolving so that knowledge, and not just raw data, can be represented, managed and manipulated (e.g. Google's knowledge search), these kinds of knowledge are mostly static, fact based knowledge. An equally important type of knowledge is the "tacit" knowledge that can be taught and transferred only through user action and direct experience. This is why, despite the expected technological hurdles to overcome, virtual reality and experience based computing technology will still remain relevant. Figure 1: Using augmented reality technology to overlay digitally reconstructed buildings over actual scene. Figure 2: The virtual chamber of the old Peranakans developed by the CAMT, Singapore.

댓글삭제
삭제한 댓글은 다시 복구할 수 없습니다.
그래도 삭제하시겠습니까?
댓글 0
댓글쓰기
계정을 선택하시면 로그인·계정인증을 통해
댓글을 남기실 수 있습니다.

  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT US
  • SIGN UP MEMBERSHIP
  • RSS
  • 2-D 678, National Assembly-daero, 36-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea (Postal code: 07257)
  • URL: www.koreaittimes.com | Editorial Div: 82-2-578- 0434 / 82-10-2442-9446 | North America Dept: 070-7008-0005 | Email: info@koreaittimes.com
  • Publisher and Editor in Chief: Monica Younsoo Chung | Chief Editorial Writer: Hyoung Joong Kim | Editor: Yeon Jin Jung
  • Juvenile Protection Manager: Choul Woong Yeon
  • Masthead: Korea IT Times. Copyright(C) Korea IT Times, All rights reserved.
ND소프트