Virtual Exhibitions on the Web: From a 2D Map to the Virtual World

The optimization of the process of implementing virtual exhibitions on the Web represents an interesting research area devoted to simplify the design and the production of virtual exhibitions, particularly for people with a scarce technical skill and strong competencies in the area to which the exhibition is related to. In the present paper we propose a web environment facilitating the production of virtual exhibition through a series of operations: from the virtual representation of the physical structure, starting from the image of a 2D map that is processed to optimize the walls identification, to the management of the artworks shown in the exhibition, including the selection of the artworks and their positioning in the physical structure. Finally the virtual exhibition may be released to the visitors, making the virtual world available for the download on the client side. Several technologies have been adopted in order to reach a user friendly backoffice environment, suitable for being used by naive (from the technology point of view) users, concentrated on the subject related to the virtual exhibition: the OpenCV library which make possible to produce the physical scenario in which the exhibition will take place evaluating the measures from 2D maps, the SVG graphic format per representing the map after having detected the boundaries of the provided 2D map, Ajax, X3D and X3DOM which enable the virtual environment representation. As a testbed we present the virtual museum of Villa Fidelia in Spello,