The global scope of the CREATE project (Constructivist Mixed Reality for Design, Education, and Cultural Heritage) is to develop a mixed reality framework that will enable highly interactive real-time construction and manipulation of realistic, virtual worlds based on real sources. This framework will be tested and applied to cultural heritage content in an educational context, as well as to the design and review of architectural/urban planning settings.
It is the project's goal to combine innovative work performed in VR, simulation, visualisation, graphics, audio, and interfaces into the development of applications informed by a "constructivist" approach.
Within the scope of the project, a prototype for each of two application scenarios will be built: a cultural heritage/education scenario, directed at students and the general public and an architectural/urban planning and design review scenario, directed at decision makers and the general public. This development will be driven by the actual user requirements, as specified through careful analysis for each case, and evaluated for its effectiveness. Success of the project will be measured during the deployment of the prototypes, and the subsequent planned evaluation of their use.
In addition, our results will be directly exploited by the cultural institution and design review partners, and indirectly through technology transfer of technological advances of the project, notably via the industrial partner.
The CREATE consortium, through its ideal blend of academic/research laboratories, the industry, governmental and non-governmental cultural institutions, end-users, and content providers, has been carefully formed in order to ensure a well-balanced development of high-quality innovative work in the above directions, and successfully carry out the objectives of the project.
In summary, the CREATE project will:
- develop careful design methodologies to determine user requirements, based on a human-centred, "constructivist" approach to working and learning, with special attention paid to evaluation of the resulting mixed reality experience.
- adapt, develop, and combine novel visualisation, display and audio technologies based on the requirements thus defined, to enable realism with interactivity, specifically for immersive VR platforms (single/multiple-screen stereoscopic displays).
- construct prototypes for two specific applications, cultural heritage and architecture/urban planning, that incorporate more natural and usable interface approaches and permit assessment of both the methodology and technology employed.