Digital Twins and Enabling Technologies in Museums and Cultural Heritage: An Overview.

This paper presents an overview of various types of virtual museums (ViM) as native artifacts or as digital twins (DT) of physical museums (PM). Depending on their mission and features, we discuss various enabling technologies and sensor equipment with their specific requirements and complexities, advantages and drawbacks in relation to each other at all stages of a DT's life cycle. A DT is a virtual construct and embodies innovative concepts based on emerging technologies (ET) using adequate sensor configurations for (meta-)data import and exchange. Our keyword-based search for articles, conference papers, (chapters from) books and reviews yielded 43 contributions and 43 further important references from Industry 4.0, Tourism and Heritage 4.0. After closer examination, a reference corpus of 40 contributions was evaluated in detail and classified along with their variants of DT-content-, communication-, and collaboration-centric and risk-informed ViMs. Their system features correlate with different application areas (AA), new or improved technologies-mostly still under development-and sensors used. Our proposal suggests a template-based, generative approach to DTs using standardized metadata formats, expert/curator software and customers'/visitors' engagement. It advocates for stakeholders' collaboration as part of a comprehensive validation and verification assessment (V&VA) throughout the DT's entire life cycle.

Virtual Anatomy Museum: Facilitating Public Engagement Through an Interactive Application.

Digitisation has become a common practice in the preservation of museum collections. Recent development of photogrammetry techniques allows for more accessible acquisition of three-dimensional (3D) models that serve as accurate representations of their originals. One of the potential applications of this is presenting digital collections as virtual museums to engage the public. Medical museums, particularly, would benefit from digitisation of their collections as many of them are closed to the public.The aim of this project was to design and create an interactive virtual museum which would represent the Anatomy Museum at the University of Glasgow with key specimens digitised using photogrammetry techniques. Members of the general public (25 participants) were asked to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of the interactive application by completing questionnaires.A process to digitise anatomical specimens using photogrammetry and convert them into game-ready 3D models was developed. The results demonstrated successful generation of 3D models of specimens preserved using different techniques, including specimens preserved in fluid and glass jars. User tests and evaluation of the application by members of the general public were positive, with participants agreeing that they would now consider visiting the real museum after using the virtual version.

Digitisation and Sharing of Collections: Museum Practices and Copyright During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This article concerns the conflict between copyright and museums' digitisation and online sharing of collections. This issue has recently become particularly important in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors outline the concept of a virtual museum and present the most important copyright provisions in EU law that may create obstacles for cultural institutions in realising virtual counterparts. To perceive copyright as the main obstacle in the process of digitisation and online sharing of collections is not unusual. Hence, the article briefly presents legal framework of the European copyright applicable to such situations. The authors argue that although copyright offers a range of possibilities for museums interested in digitising their collections, at the same time it is responsible for a chilling effect, resulting in fear of potential infringement and liability. The authors conclude that the EU's development of new legislation, coinciding with the need for digitisation and online sharing of cultural heritage caused by the pandemic, has favoured public interest at the expense of creators' rights, but still lacks satisfactory legal tools for effectively allowing cultural institutions to digitise and share their collections.

The transition from in-person to virtual museum programing for individuals living with chronic pain - A formative evaluation.

Museum engagement may be an effective approach for decreasing social disconnection and pain among individuals living with chronic pain. In October 2019, we launched a randomized controlled trial to assess the feasibility of museum engagement for individuals living with chronic pain; the study was halted in March, 2020 due to Covid-19-related safety concerns. This paper describes the process of transitioning from in-person to virtual museum programing in order to continue the study. Virtual museum programing is a feasible option for individuals living with chronic pain that is amenable to research and which may improve accessibility, inclusivity, and scalability relative to in-person programing.