Emmanouil Zidianakis

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas

This work addresses the lack of methodologies for the seamless integration of 360° videos, 3D digitized artifacts, and virtual human agents within a virtual reality environment. The proposed methodology is showcased in the context of a tour guide application and centers around the innovative use of a central hub, metaphorically linking users to var...

In this paper, we present a comprehensive methodology to support the multifaceted process involved in the digitization, curation, and virtual exhibition of cultural heritage artifacts. The proposed methodology is applied in the context of a unique collection of contemporary dresses inspired by antiquity. Leveraging advanced 3D technologies, includi...

In this paper, we present an interactive guided tour of the House-Museum of Eleftherios Venizelos located in the city of Chania, Crete, Greece. The mobile application is using a mixture of Bluetooth beacons and Augmented Reality (AR) to expand the museum experience both while visiting the museum and when planning for a museum visit. In terms of tou...

In this work, we present our approach towards reviving events, historical figures and artefacts in the context of a physical museum exhibition organized by the National Historical Museum in the Old Parliament House as part of the celebration of 200 years since the beginning of the Greek Revolution. In this context, several interactive systems were...

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a need to reassess and adapt interaction modalities to prioritize hygiene and safety. Contactless interaction has emerged as a potentially effective approach for applications on publicly available interactive systems. This paper introduces an interactive system designed for contactless interactio...

This work outlines the benefits of an open repository of cultural and touristic content for promoting sustainability in tourism. The repository aims at sharing digital content with individuals, local communities, businesses, and tour operators to promote responsible tourism practices. By providing access to cultural and touristic content, the repos...

A close-range photogrammetric approach and its implementation using a CNC device and a macro camera are proposed. A tailored image acquisition approach is proposed that is implemented using this device. To increase reconstruction robustness and accuracy, the key point features detected in the acquired images are tracked across multiple views from m...

A roadmap is proposed that defines a systematic approach for craft preservation and its evaluation. The proposed roadmap aims to deepen craft understanding so that blueprints of appropriate tools that support craft documentation, education, and training can be designed while achieving preservation through the stimulation and diversification of prac...

In this paper we present the design and implementation of a multimodal solution for the promotion of gastronomic tourism in the municipal area of Heraklion city. The provided solution is comprised of standalone information systems accompanied by a mobile app for the presentation of thematic routes. By facilitating a rich knowledge base and a collec...

We present a mobile application that is bringing to life historic photographs of Heraklion by mapping them in historical routes within the city and offering the visitor a dialogue with its social and historical context. At the same time while visiting the public library where these historic photographs are exhibited, the mobile app enhances the pro...

A roadmap is proposed that defines a systematic approach for craft preservation and its evaluation. The proposed roadmap aims at deepening craft understanding, so blueprints of appropriate tools that support craft documentation, education, and training can be designed while achieving preservation through the stimulation and diversification of pract...

In the digital information world, visualizing information in public spaces has been implemented in various formats and for application contexts such as advertisement, useful information provision, and provision of critical information in the cases of accidents, natural disasters, etc. Among the different types of information displays, in this resea...

Advances in digitization technologies have made possible the digitization of entire archaeological sites through a combination of technologies, including aerial photogrammetry, terrestrial photogrammetry, and terrestrial laser scanning. At the same time, the evolution of computer algorithms for data processing and the increased processing power mad...

Modern digitization technologies have created an increasing number of possibilities for capturing the physical dimensions and appearance of archaeological artifacts and sites in 3D. The usage of such data is usually targeted to the research, study, and documentation of our cultural heritage. At the same time, the increasing quality of the produced...

This work presents a web-based authoring tool that enables museum curators and individuals to make digital collections of exhibits accessible and explorable via the Web. It allows users to create interactive and immersive virtual 3D/VR exhibitions using a unified collaborative authoring environment based on a Human-Centered Design approach with the...

In knowledge representation systems for Cultural Heritage (CH) there is a vast amount of curated textual information for CH objects and sites. However, the large-scale study of the accumulated knowledge is difficult as long as it is provided in the form of free text. By extracting the most significant pieces of information from textual descriptions...

Temporary exhibitions have not only been the oldest, but also the most successful model of art mediation (e.g., the Venice Biennale). In this research work, we are interested in the subject of preserving periodic exhibitions in the form of an interactive virtual memory to be revisited in the future. Although popular forms for doing so include photo...

Caves can be considered as features of the landscape that have been formatted through a long period and are signs of the past climatological conditions, of prehistoric animal and human inhabitation, and provide habitat for species. In the near past, caves have also gained tourism interest since they offer unique sightseeing experiences. The sustain...

A protocol for the representation of traditional crafts and the tools to implement this are proposed. The proposed protocol is a method for the systematic collection and organization of digital assets and knowledge, their representation into a formal model, and their utilization for research, education, and preservation. A set of digital tools acco...

In this paper, a representation based on digital assets and semantic annotations is established for Traditional Craft instances, in a way that captures their socio-historic context and preserves both their tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage dimensions. These meaningful and documented experiential presentations are delivered to the target aud...

This work regards the representation of handicrafts for craft training and demonstration in the environment of an ethnographic heritage museum. The craft of mastic cultivation is chosen as a use case. This paper presents the process of representation and presentation of this craft, following an articulated pipeline approach for data collection, ann...

An approach to the representation and presentation of spatial and geographical context of cultural heritage sites is proposed. The goal is to combine semantic representations of social and historical context with 3D representations of cultural heritage sites acquired through 3D reconstruction and 3D modeling technologies, to support their interpret...

Traditional crafts exhibit tangible and intangible dimensions. Intangible dimensions include the practitioner’s gestural know-how in craft practice and have received smaller attention than tangible dimensions in digitization projects. This work presents the process of representation and presentation of the glasswork and is exemplified in the re-cre...

The accessibility of Cultural Heritage content for the diverse user population visiting Cultural Heritage Institutions and accessing content online has not been thoroughly discussed. Considering the penetration of new digital media in such physical and virtual spaces, lack of accessibility may result in the exclusion of a large user population. To...

Virtual Humans are becoming a commodity in computing technology and lately have been utilized in the context of interactive presentations in Virtual Cultural Heritage environments and exhibitions. To this end, this research work underlines the importance of aligning and fine-tuning Virtual Humans’ appearance to their roles and highlights the import...

Considering the emerging paradigm of Ambient Intelligence, this work aims to enhance the interaction between farmers and Intelligent Environments, in order to support their various daily Agricultural activities, aspiring to improve the quality and quantity of cultivated species. Towards this direction, the Greta system was designed and developed, f...

Room-sized immersive environments and interactive 3D spaces can support powerful visualizations and provide remarkable X-reality experiences to users. However, designing and developing applications for such spaces, in which user interaction takes place not only by gestures, but also through body movements is a demanding task. At the same time, cont...

With the ever-advancing availability of digitized museum artifacts, the question of how to make the vast collection of exhibits accessible and explorable beyond what museums traditionally offer via their websites and exposed databases has recently gained increased attention. This research work introduces the Invisible Museum: a user-centric platfor...

The proliferation of Internet of Things devices and services and their integration in everyday environments led to the emergence of intelligent offices, classrooms, conference, and meeting rooms that adhere to the paradigm of Ambient Intelligence. Usually, the type of activities performed in such environments (i.e., presentations and lectures) can...

The domain of distributed services is constantly growing, enabling interoperability between applications that run on different operating systems. The increasing availability and use of wireless mobile devices gave rise to opportunities for new types of mobility-distributed applications. This poster presents the FAmINE4Android middleware, which faci...

Automated vehicles are entering the roads and automation is applied to cars, trucks, busses, and even motorcycles today. High automation foresees transitions during driving in both directions. The driver and rider state become a critical parameter since reliable automation allows safe intervention and transit control to the automation when manual d...

Heraklion Christmas Castle is a joint effort between ICS-FORTH and the Municipality of Heraklion-Crete (Municipal Public Service Enterprise of Heraklion), trying to pioneer and be innovative in the presentation of Christmas customs and ideas by creating a festive neighborhood governed by interactive technology. The approach followed by this researc...

Game design process creates goals, rules, and challenges to define a game that produces desirable interactions among its participants. Modeling the way in which players interact with the game requires among others the definition of game rules, plot, connection between player and the game, etc. ACTA (ACTivity Analysis) is a general purpose finite st...

This paper presents an Ambient Intelligence infrastructure that fuses state-of-the-art technologies and related applications with digital cultural resources to deliver interactive and immersive user encounters through on-site Virtual Exhibitions (VEs) which respond to the demands of ‘new museology’. The practical exploitation of the concept is pres...

The Tourism Office of the city of Heraklion is a truly original facility that provides visitors with novel ways to access information through the use of modern technologies and innovative interactive systems developed by ICS-FORTH. This paper presents the innovative technologies employed at the tourist information office in order to enhance the inf...

Interactive projections account for a great way of user interaction and can be used in applications that need to span a significant amount of space. However, commercial hardware limit the number of the displayed projections and as a result the need for such applications cannot be satisfied out of the box. This paper discusses the inner workings of...

Play is a voluntary activity in which individuals involve for pleasure. It is very important for children because through playing they learn to explore, develop and master physical and social skills. Play development is part of the child’s growth and maturation process since birth. As such, it is widely used in the context of Occupational Therapy (...

Game design process creates goals, rules, and challenges to define a game that produces desirable interactions among its participants. Modeling the way in which players interact with the game requires among others the definition of game rules, plot, connection between player and the game, etc. This paper presents ACTA (ACTivity Analysis), a general...

Advanced Driver Assistant systems (ADAS) are receiving increased research focus as they promote a safer and more comfortable driving experience. In this context, personalization can play a key role as the different driver/rider needs, the environmental context and driver’s/rider’s state can be taken into account towards delivering custom tailored i...

This chapter presents recent advances in ambient intelligence technologies (AmI) for digital heritage experience in the context of virtual museums (VM). This is delivered under the light of an integrated and scalable approach towards the creation of AmI heritage environments. More specifically, this chapter presents a framework for representing kno...

This paper presents the design process and deployment of interactive games for children within an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environment. Designing and creating games under the perspective of Ambient Intelligence has the potential to provide enhanced indoor playing experiences to children, as well as maintaining and expanding the applicability of e...

This paper presents the conversion of an electric cargo vehicle into a portable platform for interacting with information applications. The cargo vehicle hosts 2 seats for the driver and 1 extra passenger, and 3 interactive systems installed at the cargo’s right, left and back exterior side. The vehicle is intended to follow predefined routes from...

Two dimensional paintings are exhibited in museums and art galleries in the same manner since at least three centuries. However, the emergence of novel interaction techniques and metaphors provides the opportunity to change this status quo, by supporting mixing physical and digital Cultural Heritage experiences. This paper presents the design and i...

This paper presents the design, implementation and deployment of a new version of the popular farm game as deployed within an Ambient Intelligence (AmI) simulation space. Within this space, an augmented interactive table and a 3D avatar are employed to extend the purpose and objectives of the game, thus also expanding its applicability to the age g...

This paper presents a novel framework, called Bean, which aims to monitor, evaluate and enhance pre-school children’s skills and abilities through playing in Ambient Intelligence environments. The framework includes: (i) a model of children development based on the ICF-CY model and the Denver - II assessment tool, aiming at early detection of child...

Today, many forms of art are influenced by the emergence of interactive technologies, including the mixing of physical media with digital technology for forming new hybrid works of art and the usage of mobile phones to create art projected on public spaces. Many artists and painters use digital technology to augment their work technically and creat...

Play development is part of the child’s growth and maturation process since birth. Games in general, and technologically augmented games in particular, can play a fundamental role in this process. This paper introduces the design, implementation and deployment of a new version of the popular Tower Game integrated within an Ambient Intelligence (AmI...

Natural interaction refers to people interacting with technology as they are used to interact with the real world in everyday life, through gestures, expressions, movements, etc., and discovering the world by looking around and manipulating physical objects [16]. In the domain of cultural heritage research has been conducted in a number of directio...

Nowadays, users are able to interact with digital content using their mobile devices almost everywhere and anytime due to the increased power, portability, and ubiquitous connectivity of mobile devices. This paper presents the design and implementation of a novel, remotely controlled for the purposes of edutainment and instructor-student interactio...

In the context of Ambient Intelligence (AmI), the elaboration of new interaction techniques is becoming the most prominent key to a more natural and intuitive interaction with everyday things [2]. Natural interaction between people and technology can be defined in terms of experience: people naturally communicate through gestures, expressions, move...