An Interactive 3D Holographic Pyramid for Museum Exhibition

In this paper, an interactive holographic system, realized with the aim of creating, exchanging, discussing and disseminating cultural heritage information, is presented. By using low-cost and off-the-shelf devices, the system provides the visitors with a 'floating' computer generated representation of a virtual cultural artefact that, unlike the real one, can be examined in detail through a touchless natural interface. The proposed system is realized in such a way that it can be easily placed in a cultural exhibition without requiring any structural intervention. As such, it could represent a useful instrument complementary to a museum visit thanks to its capacity both to convey different types of digital cultural information and especially to allow the visitor to become an active actor, able to enjoy different perspectives and all the details of the artefact sharing her/his experience with other visitors. The paper describes the system modules and the hardware design to physically realize the pyramid, and details the user interface composed of two main actions designed to obtain a simple exploration of a virtual cultural heritage artefact.