Browsing by Author "Luchev, Detelin"

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    Full-fledged Virtual Exploration of Sacred Spaces
    (The Eurographics Association, 2025) Paneva-Marinova, Desislava; Márkus, Zsolt László; Szkaliczki, Tibor; Goynov, Maxim; Szántó, György; Luchev, Detelin; Veres, Miklós; Pavlov, Radoslav; Weisz, Zsolt; Pavlova, Lilia; Martonosi, Patrik; Hidán, Attila; Rangochev, Konstantin; Campana, Stefano; Ferdani, Daniele; Graf, Holger; Guidi, Gabriele; Hegarty, Zackary; Pescarin, Sofia; Remondino, Fabio
    Virtual Reality (VR) revolutionised the way the users can perceive virtual or distant spaces and interact with them. The users wearing VR headsets have the impression as if they would look around at the real place of the sights. The technology is widely used in entertainment and training. Our goal was to examine how the VR technology can be applied to present sacral spaces. We assembled the virtual reality model of a Bulgarian Orthodox church in a cost-effective manner from high-resolution spherical panorama pictures. A complex VR exploration platform was created by integrating our VR presentation tool with the digital repository of Bulgarian icons and iconographic objects. Due to the integration, additional information can be displayed on specific frescoes of the church in the VR space. We offer a full-fledged virtual exploration of sacred spaces where the experience of moving around the virtual space and exploring the details of the church can be combined with transferring lexical knowledge about the church and its selected objects. The first versions of our virtual walks were available on the Web only. Due to the multiplatform development methodology applied, virtual walks can be demonstrated on VR as well.