Developing a virtual reality application for cultural heritage and room acoustics education

Abstract

We tend to use visual factors, such as architectural styles, features, specific decorations, and historical contexts, to characterize cultural heritage. Sound is a transient, ethereal phenomenon that tends to be neglected in historical records. While photographs and drawings can preserve the visual aspect of a building or scene, documenting the sonic impact of the spaces is more complicated. Particularly, the historic places used for sonic activities, such as music halls, performance halls, and worship spaces, are essential to document and preserve the acoustic qualities. An immersive experience using virtual reality (VR) technology effectively promotes public awareness about cultural heritage's importance. It simulates the room acoustics using spatial audio technology. It also can make the VR environment interactive to manipulate architectural features that change the room acoustics such as room volume, finish materials, reverberation time, and sound barrier. The main goal of this paper is to develop a VR application that can be used as a template to create a VR environment where 3rd to 8th-grade students navigate and learn about the history and architectural features of cultural heritage and the basics of room acoustics using a Quest headset.