Marcello Carrozzino

Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna | SSSUP · Perceptual Robotics Laboratory PERCRO

While Virtual Reality has slowly become a common sight, haptics is still struggling to appeal to the general public. We argue that one of the possible reasons is that while VR is designed to be as easily adaptable as possible to many different contexts, haptics is often designed to fulfil a specific purpose and fails to present itself as a tool tha...

Iterative design is an expensive yet necessary task in the creation of coherent game levels. However, it often requires many resources, something that many projects, especially in the academic field, are usually lacking. This paper discusses the results of a test performed on EscapeTower, a pre-existing customer-ready research game where hand-craft...

In this paper we propose a development technique for low-power devices with limited computing capacity to obtain efficient, high-performance and non-CPU-invasive Augmented Reality (AR) applications. The paper will discuss how to exploit both the available hardware and software resources. Many boards on the market are equipped with CPUs with low com...

Despite its significant role in the history of videogames, the world of racing games is still fairly unexplored. In this paper, we present the result of a study aimed at understanding how different hardware peripherals such as controllers and racing wheels can influence the perception of racing games, and how tracks’ features correlate with players...

With hundreds of new games being released every week, designers rely on existing knowledge to design control schemes for their products. However, in the case of games with new game mechanics, designers struggle to implement new button schemes due to the lack of research on players’ adaptation to new and non-standard controls. In this study we inves...

Curiosity is a fundamental trait of human nature, and as such, it has been studied and exploited in many aspects of game design. However, curiosity is not a static trigger that can just be activated, and game design needs to be carefully paired with the current state of the game flow to produce significant reactions. In this paper we present the pr...

As human beings, we are so used to interacting with each other that any world without humans would feel alien to us, including digital ones. In this article, we present a survey on the role of digital human-like characters in virtual worlds, both as counterparts of real human users and as embodied agents driven by artificial intelligence. The main...

In this paper we present Bestbrau, a reactive programming framework for the development of 3d real-time applications. We show its most relevant features, explaining how it differs from the systems used nowadays in commercial game engines and underlining which new functionalities it would provide to a 3D engine integrating it. Our framework is entir...

This paper has the purpose to show a stabilization video-streaming methodology feasible to low-power wearable devices. Thanks to an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) mounted together with the camera we are ready to stabilize directly on video-stream without the delay and the complexity due to image processing used by classic software stabilization te...

The technological advances made in the recent years in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have led to a revolution in many adjacent areas. One of these is Cultural Heritage (CH), as the new array of XR technologies (a concept integrating Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality) is offering new interaction possibilities. The...

There are many examples of cultural events that distinguish people nationally. Celebrating this can bring people closer, as inhabitants of different countries share similar cultural values. This study investigates a sustainable way to enhance these types of events. On the occasion of the 2000-year anniversary of the death of the Roman poet Ovid, we...

Virtual museums are becoming increasingly popular, especially thanks to the recent spread of low-cost immersive technologies enabling a richer technology-based cultural offer. However, creating a virtual museum commonly requires a lot of effort, especially if a certain visual quality is required.

Now that virtual reality has finally become a customer ready product, museums can use this new mean to enhance their exhibitions. The main problem however is that such a tool was not thought for casual users, and to adapt this new technology to short experiences such as the ones museums could provide, it is necessary to reduce the adaptation time t...

This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary research work on the emergence and impact of virtual technologies on the valorization of cultural experience. Our analysis focuses on the drivers of the users' satisfaction through a three-step research path. The results of this study give evidence to the link between immersion and emotion a...

This article presents the results of an interdisciplinary research work on the emergence and impact of virtual technologies on the valorization of cultural experience. After reviewing the literature on immersive museography and the concepts of immersion, interaction and social interaction within a cultural experience, we focus our analysis on the d...

In the last decades, more and more virtual systems are used for various activities: training, explanation, simulation, or verifying different concepts. This paper presents a first attempt to create a CogInfoCom channel through which a Virtual Reality (VR) system communicates with a natural cognitive system (prototype and physical experimental syste...

Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming an increasingly important tool for the research, the communication and the popularization of cultural heritage. A great deal of 3D interactive reconstructions of artefacts, monuments and entire sites have been realized which meet the consent of both specialist and public at large. However, until a few years ago most...

The drive toward ubiquitous communications has long been encompassed by the concept of a connected or smart city. The idea that data transfer and real-time data analysis can enhance the quality of life for urban inhabitants is compelling, and one can easily envision the provision of exciting new services and applications that such an information-dr...

Virtual museums are becoming increasingly popular, especially thanks to the recent spread of low-cost immersive technologies enabling even small cultural realities to enrich their technology-based offer. The growing availability of computational power and high-quality visual elements enables the use of virtual characters in order to add depth to th...

Libraries in the 21st century face a great challenge: to improve the integra- tion of digital technologies with their archive material and to find new ways of disseminating their collections to the public. Research and evaluation on the use of digital tools and new software technology for educational purposes in current library practices is still...

As consequence of the technology expansion of recent years, people are nowadays seeking digital interactive experiences. Museums need to understand and embrace this change by creating digital interactive exhibitions that are culturally guaranteed by the institution authority and, at the same time, can be more appealing for the general public. Among...

This paper presents a museum exhibition based on Immersive Multimedia (IM) and Virtual Reality (VR). Several researches showed that the use of IM and VR in exhibition increase the involvement of the visitor and improve communication with the public. The goal of our project is relive the ancient Leonardo’s manuscript “Codex of Flight” using immersiv...

The children suffering of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present several limitations in social communication and interactive skills. State of the art showed that Virtual Reality (VR) represents a valid alternative to learn social skills in ASD. In particular VR offers the advantage to simulate daily life interaction in a replicable and controlled e...

Virtual Reality is widely regarded as an extremely promising solution for industrial training purposes, as it allows to perform simulated hands-on activities in a controlled and safe environment. In this paper we present a Virtual Reality system aimed at providing a training solution for safety inside a generic power plant environment. The system i...

This paper investigates the use of Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) to evaluate the process of emotion recognition from faces (ERF). ERF has been mostly probed by using still photographs resembling universal expressions. However, this approach does not reflect the vividness of faces. Virtual Reality (VR) makes use of animated agents, trying to o...

This paper presents a new application in the field of cultural heritage, allowing outdoor site exploration throughout different periods of time, based on Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) technology. The purpose of this research is to allow a free interaction metaphor between users and heritage landmarks, and to enrich their travel experience with imp...

This paper presents a real time 3D walkthrough application based on interactive VR technologies, designed and realized with and for secondary school students in order to raise their awareness about their local heritage, in particular the Medieval Walls of Grosseto, Tuscany, one of the rare examples in Italy of defensive walls remained nearly intact...

This paper presents the design and the architecture of an educational 3D application enabling reading books in Virtual Environments exploiting an Interactive Digital Storytelling paradigm, in order to disseminate culture using an entertaining approach particularly suitable for young people. We also present two case studies using this approach: the...

In this paper, we present a general architecture for Mixed Reality applications. The proposed solution has been developed in order to provide a useful instrument to develop Cultural Heritage applications. During the design of the system, particular attention was given to intangible knowledge, such as manual activities, performing arts, lost civiliz...

This paper presents the AMICA VR system, aiming at exploiting immersive visualization paradigms enabling visitors to be physically and emotionally involved in a virtual experience conceived for the dissemination of the activities related to craftsmanship of printmaking. The developed platform aims at spreading a better knowledge about printmaking b...

Complex virtual environments often require computational resources exceeding the capabilities of a single machine. Furthermore immersive visualization can exploit multiple displays fostering the needing of computational power. We hereby present a system, called XVR Network Renderer, allowing rendering load to be distributed throughout a cluster of...

The surrounding world has a strong impact on the way we feel and perceive the events that happens in daily life. The power of environments to elicit emotions in humans has been widely studied in experimental psychology by using exposure to photographs or real situations. These researches do not reproduce the vividness of events in ordinary life and...

Newly available technologies and natural interaction in video games are reshaping the role of immersion and interaction on game enjoyment. The current work aims at assessing a highly immersive setup exploiting natural user interaction, combining Head Mounted Display and a depth camera, with the objective of evaluating its use as a platform for Seri...

Social interaction in videogames has a big impact on players experience and is often used to increase enjoyment and retention. In the current study a highly immersive setup based on the Oculus Rift and depth cameras and exploiting natural user interaction is compared with a classical Keyboard & Mouse configuration in the context of a videogame expe...

This paper presents “A Day In The HOspital”, a Digital Serious Game aiming at providing a technological tool for both evaluating and training ethical skills of medical staff personnel. During the game, the player interprets the role of a physician who has to perform a decision-making process that involves his ethical and medical skills. Usability a...

This paper presents the evolving embodiments of “A Virtual Laboratory”, a VR-based videogame simulating an experiment of medical distillation in a medieval alchemy lab. Players are encouraged to acquire the knowledge needed to master the operations to be performed by consulting the digital representation of an ancient treatise on distillation hoste...

Virtual Reality experiences featuring realistic Virtual Humans with convincing facial expressions are a useful tool to improve social skill in humans. For this reason several investigations have been carried out on the recognition of virtual avatar emotions, based on dynamic and static facial cues originated by basic emotions developed by Ekman. Dy...

Virtual Reality technology is increasingly used for game based learning application, i.e. Digital Serious Games. Simulating reality serious games improve technical skills in different fields and it is often used in medical area. In this research is described “A Day In The HOspital” (ADITHO), a serious game aiming at increase the process of decision...

Augmented Reality (AR) has proven to provide effective tools to assist the human work in a wide range of sectors. Many examples can be found in literature of innovative AR tools used in medicine, industry and the military fields. Recently AR has been successfully applied also to cultural heritage, mainly for communication and educational purposes....

This paper presents our ongoing work for operators training exploiting an immersive Mixed Reality system. Users, immersed in a Virtual Environment, can be trained in assembling or disassembling complex mechanical machineries. Taking input from current industrylevel procedures, the training consists in guided step-by-step operations in order to teac...

This paper is the result of cooperation between technologists and scholars of tourism marketing and analyses in an exploratory way the innovative impact of some emerging technologies in the field of cultural heritage. In particular, we refer to a " family " of technologies developed within one research group in Pisa (Italy): this allows to look at...

The paper describes the multimedia museum installation realized on the occasion of the restoration of the Polyptych of Simone Martini, introducing objectives in terms of communication, fruition and documentation, presenting design and architectural solutions, and discussing the obtained results against the set objectives, demonstrating also the ada...

This paper presents a novel fully immersive Mixed Reality system that we have recently developed where the user freely walks in a life-size virtual scenario wearing an HMD and can see and use her/his own body when interacting with objects. This form of natural interaction is made possible in our system because the user's hands are real-time capture...

This paper introduces our ongoing work on the Foot Controller Device as an interface for navigation in Immersive Virtual Environments. The Foot Controller is a special, arduino-based control mat equipped with an array of pressure sensors and able to function as a touch surface for feet. What makes it special is that sensor cells can be accessed ind...

This study investigates how the sense of embodiment in virtual environments can be enhanced by multisensory feedback related to body movements. In particular, we analyze the effect of combined vestibular and proprioceptive afferent signals on the perceived embodiment within an immersive walking scenario. These feedback signals were applied by means...

This paper presents LawVille, a Web-Based Collaborative 3D Serious Game aimed at teaching citizenship and the Italian Constitution to secondary school students, by making them the protagonists of a fantasy story meant to solicit their direct involvement in a series of political questions.

This poster introduces a fully immersive Mixed Reality system we have recently developed, where the user is free to walk inside a virtual scenario while wearing a HMD. The novelty of the system lies in the fact that users can see and use their real hands - by means of a Kinect-like camera mounted on the HMD - in order to naturally interact with the...

En In this paper we present a Digital Serious Game set in a medieval alchemical laboratory, aimed at disseminating the ancient knowledge of medicine distillation contained in the famous Adam Lonicer's Kreuterbuch (1569) treatise. The application is based on interactive Virtual Environments and available on multiple visualization technologies, rangi...

Augmented Reality (AR) has proven to provide effective tools to assist the human work in a wide range of sectors. Many examples can be found in literature of innovative AR tools used in medicine, industry and the military sector. We argue that also the activity of professional operators dealing with cultural assets, such as restorers, can benefit f...

Mubil, is a 3D laboratory established in 2012 by the University Library of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (NTNU UB) in collaboration with the Percro lab of the University of Santa Anna in Pisa. The project focused first at the development of a consistent methodology for the use of Virtual Environments as a metaphor...

This paper presents the work related to the 3D reconstruction of the scene depicted in the famous Piero della Francesca's fresco “The Resurrection”. The work has presented many challenges due to the fact that deliberate alterations to a mathematically correct perspective were introduced by the artist in order to visibly underline the contrast betwe...

Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology enabling a natural paradigm of interaction between humans and computers. VR users interact with simulated environments and receive a feedback to their actions in terms of information stimulating their sensory system: images, sounds, tactile cues. VR experiences improve as much as this feedback is immersive; for...

Ancient manuscripts are an important form of heritage and knowledge which is conventionally hard to disseminate to the general public because of restrictions due to the need of physically preserving the original tomes from the wear and tear of time and man-made damages. The MUBIL project involves museums, libraries and ICT academy partners with the...

In this paper we present our design approach of transposing old books and manuscripts using 3D technology in a game frame. MUBIL is an interdisciplinary collaboration initiated by the NTNU University library of Trondheim and PERCRO at Scuola Santa Anna in Pisa. The books are enriched with 3D objects, additional explanatory content, in pictures, dra...

When we think to bas-relieves it is natural to compare them with sculptures, because they share some common properties such as techniques, materials and shapes. However, from a different perspective, bas-relieves have even deeper connections with other bi-dimensional forms of art, such as the frescoes; both have been used to decorate walls surfaces...

This paper presents a health economic system for motor recovery in patients with the commonest cause of death in some countries, stroke. The system is based on immersive, real-time motion capture (MOCA) available for private use and at the bedside. An interactive virtual reality (VR) interface designed with auditory and visual feedback. It consists...

This paper presents a system designed to induce, in healthy subjects, artificial hand-tremor that is observed in persons affected by neurological impairments. The objective is to allow a healthy user to feel in first person the effect of the impairment while performing common manipulative tasks in order for her/him to understand and gain empathy wi...

In this paper we present an experimental environment of 3D books combined with a game application that has been developed by a collaboration project between the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway the NTNU University Library, and the Percro laboratory of Santa Anna University in Pisa, Italy. MUBIL is an international...

MUBIL is an international research project aiming at establishing a novel learning framework based on Virtual Environments technologies in order to disseminate the content of libraries archives, especially ancient manuscripts. The project, lead by the Gunnerus Library of Trondheim, Norway, and participated by the NTNU (Norway) and Scuola Sant'Anna...

Cultural Heritage is an interdisciplinary field and the information is gained from different sources and in varying formats. Moreover, the objects often have a strong 3D component, and cannot be easily represented with conventional data management frameworks like Geographic Information System (GIS). The use of a 3D framework may allow a closer adhe...

In the last few years the improved performances of graphics hardware and the growing availability of broadband internet connections have eventually led to effectively adding a third dimension to web interfaces, achieving what is commonly referred to as Web3D. Nevertheless, these technologies are not yet widespread, especially in the cultural sector...

This paper presents the concept and the work in progress of SONNA, a research project aiming to analyze the impact of social networks, web 2.0 and interactive multimedia as tools for learning. The overall architecture, the technical details of the platform and the storyboard of two samples interactive web-based serious games are also presented, hig...

The project ( MUBIL) is an international interdisciplinary collaboration and will investigate ways to use 3d technology and disseminate the content of old books from the special collections of Gunnerus Library. The project aims in communicating with new groups of library users, create social engagement and spread knowledge. In addition the project...

In order to rehearse for a play or a scene from a movie, it is generally required that the actors are physically present at the same time in the same place. In this paper we present an example and experience of a full body motion shared virtual environment (SVE) for rehearsal. The system allows actors and directors to meet in an SVE in order to reh...

Vulnerability of cultural properties can be significantly reduced through specific disaster plans, focused on safeguarding cultural assets in emergency situations. The effectiveness of these plans may be enhanced by the use of innovative technologies for visualization and verification purposes. In this paper we propose an alternative application of...