Reliving prehistoric Malta through VR - Times of Malta

The Creative Research Time successful the Computing Department astatine Saint Martin’s Institute of Higher Education (SMI) has worked intimately with practice experts and teachers to make an acquisition Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Experience.

The SMI probe squad has already proven itself by processing a faithful virtual practice of the tangible taste practice (physical tract and artefacts) of an underground UNESCO practice site: the Neolithic Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni. This project, based connected a LIDAR scan of the tract during its restoration successful the 2000s, was completed and launched conscionable anterior to the closure of museums owed to the pandemic successful 2020.

This year’s Re-Live History task sought to augment the acquisition with the portrayal of intangible taste heritage, that is, the quality behaviour successful these sites, utilizing artefacts recovered wrong them. Re-Live History utilized VR and question seizure (mocap) exertion to present an animated quality that meets the realism expectations raised by the site’s faithful representation.

The probe squad worked with mocap suits successful bid to make a realistic travel of question portrayed by the avatar moving astatine digging 1 of the walls of the hypogeum successful enactment with the practice experts’ absorption and teachers’ suggestions. These were invited to enactment successful the plan specification, improvement and valuation of the results with the volition of fostering familiarity and involvement successful the acquisition to question its adoption successful teaching.

‘Re-Live History’ utilized VR and question seizure (mocap) technology

Results gained person illustrated encouraging feedback connected the relation of VR successful the pedagogy of teaching of subjects, adjacent extracurricular history, specified arsenic integer literacy, graphics and integer art, dependable digitisation and the underlying mathematics.

St Martin’s Institute believes that the occurrence of Re-Live History is simply a large accidental to make an archive of specified immersive experiences arsenic teaching immunodeficiency for contiguous and aboriginal generations to larn astir the taste roots of our nation. This addresses learning outcomes successful schoolhouse curricula that absorption connected periods of time, astir which small documentary grounds is available, specified arsenic prehistoric cultures.

The probe task is financed done the Research Excellence Programme of the Malta Counsel for Science and Technology (MCST). A abbreviated movie produced wrong the VR acquisition and done 360-degree editing techniques, whitethorn beryllium viewed here. 

Re-Live History whitethorn beryllium experienced astatine the PlayCon lawsuit astatine the MFCC, Ta’ Qali, taking spot this play (Stand D7) oregon for teacher/student groups done an assignment acceptable with SMI done email infodesk@stmartins.edu.