Mystic Tours: Cross-Platform Museum Virtual Tourism Application Using 360-degree Imagery and Virtual Reality Technologies

In this paper, the researchers developed a cross-platform virtual tourism application named Mystic Tours that utilizes 360-degree imagery and Virtual Reality (VR) Technologies. Mystic Tours has three (3) main features: navigation, interaction, and perception. For navigation, users can pan, tilt, and zoom the environment to explore the 3D scene, including a map that can easily teleport the user to other parts of the museum. For interaction, users can click on the information icon to open the information canvas consisting of text and images with narration support available in both English and Filipino. For perception, users can view the museum using different perspective modes. For android devices, users can turn on the virtual reality mode and explore the area and interact with objects using the gaze control feature. The proponents of the study implemented data analytics using Unity Analytics to understand the behavioral pattern of the users and make data-driven adjustments and recommendations to museums. For testing, the User Acceptance Test (UAT) was divided into five (5) sections: personal data, web application assessment, android touch assessment, virtual reality mode assessment, and general features assessment. In compliance with ISO 9126, the result showed that the respondents rated the application Excellent Quality (EQ) in terms of functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, and portability. In conclusion, the developed application was highly accepted by the test respondents.