Backed by funding from the UK Government’s Innovation Accelerator programme, the project itself is a two-sided XR — a catch-all term for immersive technology including virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality — platform.

One part of the platform will enable people to access an array of museums, sites, objects, and dynamic experiences virtually. The second part of the platform will allow virtual curators to tell stories by combining 3D objects and environments.

The University of Glasgow said it will “empower online visitors to explore vast cultural assets in engaging new ways,” and “enable expert and novice curators to create new content.”

To realise the project, the University of Glasgow is working alongside National Museums Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, and Edify, the immersive learning platform. 

The Museums in the Metaverse team, led by Professor Neil McDonnell at Glasgow, noted that while virtual museums won’t replace the experience of visiting a traditional museum in-person, they hope XR will enhance the offerings of traditional museums.

So far, and generally speaking, creating museum experiences in the metaverse has proven challenging due to the high costs involved with the creation of 3D objects and environments.

In light of this, the project’s research staff are to develop, streamline, and publish workflows using advanced photogrammetry equipment to boost the capacity for and affordability of heritage content creation.

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Speaking on the project, McDonnell said: “Virtual Reality Museums offer transformative extensions to the traditional museum experience: they can host collections of any size, show distant objects side-by-side, and be accessed from anywhere in the world. Their potential is extraordinary.

“However, there are several challenges – economic, technological, and cultural – which have so far limited universal use including the expense of producing a bespoke VR experience as well as lack of technical skills to digitise collections and assets in 3D.

“It is estimated that over 90% of objects in collections can’t be seen as they are in storage. Museums in the Metaverse can help liberate these collections and will allow museums the freedom to connect with their audiences in new and exciting ways. Just imagine being able to step into history and get up close to the virtual duplicates of ancient relics that in the real world can only be displayed or viewed behind glass.

“We also hope that it will bring new audiences to museums who are currently excluded as they live too far from [the] biggest and best collections. Moreover, Museums in the Metaverse will let anyone create their own virtual museums and tell their own stories with objects from all around the world.”
 

Header photo by Martin Shields. Video trailer courtesy of the University of Glasgow.