Despite rising digitisation, the construction industry continues to be marked by redundancy, multi-plication, and, at the same time, a lack of transparency and disaggregation of data and information, resulting in inadequate project life cycle management in terms of time, cost, and quality. This paper presents the results of the development of a TRL 4-5 ICT application based on the integration of Building Information Modeling and blockchain technologies, with the goal of fostering digitisation pro-cesses in the supply chain in the direction of greater information flow transparency, knowledge-based organizations, and decision-making processes based on unambiguous ordered data. The initiative, which began as a broader industry research cooperation, now includes a university spin-off, compa-nies that operate as system integrators, and leaders in the customisation of BIM solutions for the built heritage value chain.
Information and Experimentation: Custom Made Visual Languages
The collaboration between the Architecture and Design department and Grandi Navi Veloci, which began last year from the point of view of setting the visual perception of customer caring on board, was then developed with reference to the issue of communicating the data that are necessary in a certain situation; this occasion was emblematically identified in the often unspoken request for the reassurance of the user in the face of moments of unease or concern. From an initial cataloging of the factors that determine the state of insecurity, we moved on to their possible configuration through AR, with elements that inform passengers of the protection and safety mechanisms that are not im-mediately perceptible.The project, therefore, studies visual languages and latest generation applications that, combined with the use of AI, are able to guarantee involvement through the communication of messages tailored to specific situations.
Multi-Level Information Processing Systems in the Digital Twin Era
The most challenging aspect of the scientific panorama linked to technological innovation is the search for possible connections between Representation, Man and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the complex ecosystem that defines a Digital Twin. Man plays a crucial role in facilitating communication processes both for the dissemination of knowledge and the accessibility and usability of content and for his ability to become a “sensor” and communicate information, feelings, emotions. The contribution proposes a cross-section of applications that link and decline Augmented Reality and AI differently according to a gradual scale shift from the artefact contained in a building overlooking an urban context of interest. The result is a multi-level information processing system derived from the three-dimensional matrix that links data collection, representation and visualisation techniques and tools with the cultural heri-tage – city, building, artefact – according to specific use cases.
Storytelling for Cultural Heritage: theLucrezio Menandro’s Mithraeum
The essay is part of the valorization for the knowledge of Cultural Heritage and is articulated ac-cording to three different readings: a first semantic reading, concerning the meaning of narration of a specific “story”; an operational reading in which the proposed methodology is applied to a concrete case study; a reading on the possible scenarios of communication for knowledge, using AR. The first results of the ongoing digitization process of the collection inside the buildings of the Ostia Antica Archaeological Park in Rome are presented here, where innovative digitization and data optimization technologies are compared with the immense heritage of the Park, animating the exhibition-inter-active itinerary, creating digitally usable content through AR, reflecting on the opportunity of these technologies to create new forms of digital storytelling for use and knowledge.
AR and Knowledge Dissemination: the Case of the Museo Egizio
In the context of the growing pivotal role of digitalization for cultural institutions, the digital transition of the Museo Egizio di Torino is centered on the integration of heterogeneous information and data to implement the management, dissemination, and promotion of the Museum’s collection. This digital transition is intended not only as a mere acquisition of technological tools but rather as the construction of an integrated system that facilitates dialogue and connections between all museum activities, from daily management to research, from the design of installations to the generation of multiple possible narratives. Within this framework, the essay illustrates, through two empirical case studies, the opportunities of AR technologies to implement the knowledge and dissemination of tangible and intangible aspects of the millennial historical objects preserved in the Museum.
IoT and BIM Interoperability: Digital Twins in Museum Collections
According to the 2017 International Council of Museums (ICOM) guidelines, data on museum col-lections must be stored in a secure environment, supported by backup systems that allow access by all legitimate users, complete and unique identification, and description (associations, provenance, condition, treatment and current location) of each object are required.Concerning these indications, it is therefore, a priority to establish precise protocols for the preven-tive conservation and analysis of data concerning not only the identity of the asset or the information collected during its study, but also how it is preserved.This paper proposes a digital framework for the management of museum structures and collections, integrating Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodologies for the preservation and visualization of data with Internet of Things (IoT) methodologies for its collection and analysis.
Enhanced Interaction Experience for Holographic Visualization
Nowadays, holographic visualization pushes further the limits in exploring tri-dimensional digital con-tent. 3D models typically displayed through a computer screen now enter the real world as holograms. The Hologram Table allows users to visualize and manipulate huge 3D models as if they were in the space in front of them. Its use has already proved helpful for the virtual fruition and presentation of complex cultural heritage buildings and their design interventions, but it surely can do more. The work aims at exploring the possibility of expanding the capabilities of the Hologram Table interaction by developing a custom-designed experience to interact with 3D point cloud data coming from survey activity. The test case was the interesting building of the Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan, Italy) basilica. Initial results are encouraging and show that the point model can be enriched with associated informa-tion and additional content (images and texts) available for holographic visualization.
Virtual Canova: a Digital Exhibition Across MANN and Hermitage Museums
The paper presents the results of a scientific collaboration between the Interdepartmental Research Center Urban/Eco of the University of Naples Federico II and the MANN (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, National Archaeological Museum of Naples).The research activity was aimed to the digitisation, design, and development of an AR/VR-powered narrative experience regarding Antonio Canova’s statuary that is currently exhibited at the MANN, loaned by the Hermitage in St. Petersburg: Cupid, Hebe, Dancer, Cupid and Psyche, the Genius of Death and The Three Graces.The project is motivated by the will to realize an active example of a digital museum, where cultural and formative experiences related to the fruition of architectural and artistic artifacts can be relived over time, even when manufacts are not physically and/or temporally located in the space where the experience takes place.
Integrated Technologies for Smart Buildings and PREdictive Maintenance
The preservation and the regeneration of the existing built heritage is still characterized, even in the context of an increasing digitization of the value and supply chain, by inefficient time and costs management, along the whole life cycle, as well as by discontinuity and lack of information on the one hand, by redundancy and duplication of data on the other. Accessibility, usability and feasibility in order to univocally implement information, also by real–time monitoring, are areas of growing interest to all actors of the building and construction value–chain, with particular reference built heritage knowl-edge phase, as well as for the stakeholders of complementary industries as ICT, for the development of integrated digital solutions for data acquisition, modeling and visualization.
New Interpretative Models for the Study of Urban Space
The research project aims to acquire data on the impact of an environment on humans. The pro-cess is based on the use of the EEG helmet synchronised to GPS: the EEG helmet is a device that non–invasively records 14 channels of the human brain through electrodes and, through an algorithm, transforms them into cognitive states in real time. Starting from this raw data, through the ‘circumplex model’, cognitive states can be transformed into emotions with the aim of showing what people on average feel in a given urban space. The data, which are linked through GPS to a position in space, are empirically recorded with statistically significant samples from which emotions are reprojected onto the mesh of the digitally reconstructed environment through a process of photomodelling.