3DPublish: A Web-Based Solution for Building Dynamic 3D Virtual Museums

Abstract

Today museums around the world offer their content through two basic methods: a simple view of their artworks through a content viewer, or through a custom designed 2D or 3D virtual exhibition in which the pieces and the scene are static. This paper describes a 3DPublish tool which represents an alternative to these two static solutions thereby giving the possibility to dynamically manage a 3D virtual scenario (real or imaginary) and the artwork that composes it. This gives the user a most realistic experience through different exhibitions, using various added value methods like storytelling or virtual tours. 3DPublish will facilitate the museum curator's daily tasks and will improve the final results for 3D virtual museum exhibitions. This application was created as part of the Tourspheres project, whose challenge is to explore new measurement systems to reach a more valuable tourist behavior comprehension. But after the experience (presented in this paper as a case study) of creating a custom development for an exhibition for the Kubo Gallery in San Sebastian (SPAIN), the work focused on abstracting all processes to package the 3DPublish tool with the aim that it becomes a commercial solution.