Explorable Virtual Diorama of Indonesian Prehistoric Human Life using Apple ARKit based Mixed Reality

Abstract

Prehistoric human diorama which are being diplayed in archaeology museums in Indonesia are still static and inexplorable. This research aims to design a virtual diorama application about Indonesian prehistoric human habitat and life which applies Apple ARKit based Mixed Reality (MR) technology. Virtual diorama application lets users to explore dynamic virtual diorama from their ARKit supported iOS devices. Virtual diorama application has an ability to 3D scan the environment around user by taking point cloud data through ARKit. Scanning result is used to generate virtual environment which its objects are arranged according with real-world object arrangement by using heightmap from scanning result. This application uses “Magic Door” concept which the user can get in and out virtual diorama through a virtual door. Test results show that virtual environment arranger system has a success rate of 89% with average global translation of 5,04 cm and global rotation chance of 13,33%. Questionnaire testing to 30 persons showed that 43,33% of respondents were helped by virtual environment arrangements which were matched with real world environment arrangement in prevention of collisions with objects in the real world. There are 36,67% of respondents agree that the displayed dynamic prehistoric human helps respondents in understanding prehistoric human life and 46,67% of the respondents agree that Mixed Reality provides a new experience in learning prehistoric human life.