"A virtual museum is a digital entity that draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience through personalization, interactivity, and richness of content."
The use of virtual technology to create interactive museum exhibits. Virtual Museums can be used to provide access to collections and exhibitions that are otherwise inaccessible.
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR): These are technologies used to create immersive and interactive digital environments. They are the foundation for building virtual museums.
3D modeling: This is the process of creating digital representations of objects or spaces through the use of specialized software. 3D modeling is essential in creating realistic and detailed virtual museum exhibits.
Digital preservation: This refers to the process of creating and maintaining digital versions of physical objects, documents, and other forms of heritage. It is a critical aspect of virtual museums as it ensures the long-term preservation of cultural artifacts.
Game design: Game design principles are increasingly being employed in virtual museums to create engaging and interactive experiences. These include elements such as interactivity, storytelling, and player agency.
Archaeology and cultural heritage: Knowledge of archaeology and cultural heritage is central to developing virtual museums that accurately represent the history, culture, and artifacts of a particular community.
Museum studies: This is the study of the theoretical and practical aspects of managing museums. It provides a foundational understanding of museum operations, collections management, and exhibit design.
User experience (UX) design: UX design refers to the process of designing digital interfaces that are intuitive, functional, and aesthetically pleasing. In the context of virtual museums, UX design is crucial to creating engaging and accessible exhibitions.
Digital humanities: This is an interdisciplinary field that utilizes computational techniques and digital tools to explore humanistic questions. It provides methods and approaches for analyzing, visualizing, and disseminating cultural data.
Interactive media: Interactive media encompass various forms of digital media that allow users to engage with and manipulate digital content actively.
Computer science: Basic knowledge of computer science concepts such as programming, database management, and web design is essential for developing virtual museums.
Virtual Reality Museums: This type of virtual museum uses VR technology that allows users to experience the exhibits and collections in a fully immersive 3D environment.
360-degree Virtual Tours: These virtual tours give visitors a panoramic view of the exhibits, showcasing different angles of the exhibits.
Online Exhibitions: Online Exhibitions consist of online galleries that showcase virtual images of exhibits and art collections.
Augmented Reality Museums: The augmented reality museum lets visitors scan the QR code or use their smartphone camera to get an augmented reality view of the exhibits.
Interactive Exhibits: Interactive exhibits engage visitors and let them navigate through the virtual museum to learn more about different exhibits on display.
Time Travel Museums: These virtual museums let visitors teleport to different periods and locations to gain insights on cultural heritage around the world.
Digital Archive Museums: Digital archives consist of digital collections that preserve cultural heritage and artifacts for future reference.
Mobile Museum Apps: These museums offer education and information about artifacts, and visitors can download these museum apps and enjoy interactive exploration wherever they go.
E-book Museums: E-book museums feature detailed information on different artifacts available for visitors to explore.
Video Game Museums: This museum offers a virtual environment where visitors can explore levels and unlock different exhibits. They feature various video games that depict cultural heritage and artifacts.
"[A virtual museum] complements, enhances, or augments the museum experience through personalization, interactivity, and richness of content."
"[A virtual museum] can perform as the digital footprint of a physical museum, or can act independently, while maintaining the authoritative status as bestowed by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in its definition of a museum."
"[A virtual museum] is also committed to public access; to both the knowledge systems embedded in the collections and the systematic, and coherent organization of their display, as well as to their long-term preservation."
"A virtual museum can be designed around specific objects (such as an art museum or a natural history museum), or can consist of online exhibitions created from primary or secondary resources (as, for example, in a science museum)."
"A virtual museum can refer to the mobile or World Wide Web offerings of traditional museums (e.g., displaying digital representations of its collections or exhibits); or can be born digital content such as, 3D environments, net art, virtual reality, and digital art."
"[A museum] is essentially separate from its sister institutions such as a library or an archive."
"Virtual museums are usually, but not exclusively delivered electronically when they are denoted as online museums, hypermuseum, digital museum, cybermuseums or web museums."
"A virtual museum can perform as the digital footprint of a physical museum."
"[A virtual museum] draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience."
"It is committed to public access; to both the knowledge systems embedded in the collections and the systematic, and coherent organization of their display, as well as to their long-term preservation."
"A virtual museum can be born digital content such as, 3D environments, net art, virtual reality, and digital art."
"A virtual museum can refer to the mobile or World Wide Web offerings of traditional museums."
"A virtual museum draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience through personalization, interactivity, and richness of content."
"[A virtual museum] is committed to the systematic and coherent organization of display."
"[A virtual museum] is delivered electronically when they are denoted as online museums, hypermuseum, digital museum, cybermuseums or web museums."
"A virtual museum can consist of online exhibitions created from primary or secondary resources."
"A virtual museum can be designed around specific objects (such as an art museum or a natural history museum), or can consist of online exhibitions created from primary or secondary resources (as, for example in a science museum)."
"A virtual museum can be born digital content such as, 3D environments, net art, virtual reality, and digital art."
"A virtual museum can perform as the digital footprint of a physical museum, or can act independently."