A Web 3D-Scene Editor of Virtual Reality Exhibitions and 360-degree Videos

Abstract

This work consists in the development of a Web-based system which allows museum managers to generate their own virtual 3D exhibitions, using a two-dimensional graphical user interface. These virtual 3D exhibitions can be displayed interactively in the museum's website, or as a immersive experience in a virtual headset (e.g. Google CardBoard) via a mobile app. We use the SVG specification to edit the exhibition, handling 3D models of the rooms, sculptures and pictures. Furthermore, the user can add to the scene a list of cameras with their respective control points, and then generate several routes through the scene. The scene is rendered in the browser using standard technologies, such as WebGL (ThreeJS) and X3D (X3DOM), and the mobile app is generated via Unity3D. Also, the X3D and MPEG-4 compression standards allow us to transform the scene and its camera routes into 360° videos, where user can manipulate camera orientation while playing the track. Also, audio tracks can be added to each route and hence, inserted in the 360° video.