Paintings alive: A virtual reality-based approach for enhancing the user experience of art gallery visitors

Visits to art museums are not appealing to a wide sector of the public, limiting in that way the exposure of art works to the wider community and especially the younger generation. In this paper we investigate the use of Virtual Reality (VR) for displaying animated artworks as a means for creating an enhanced user experience that could make visits to art-galleries more appealing. A key point of the proposed technique is the analysis of the art-works that enables the determination of a most appropriate setting and animation that best promotes the original message of the painter. The promise of this approach has been validated through an experimental user evaluation where users clearly indicated the benefits of using interactive virtual environments for presenting animated art paintings