In 2016 I joined the PERCRO – PERCeptual RObotics laboratories, as Junior Unity Developer on the MuraVagando project. Muravagando was a joint effort between a local high school in Grosseto (Italy) and the laboratory, aiming to promote a deeper understanding of local cultural heritage in high schools.
This project was divided into three stages:
- Students familiarized with their local history, visiting the most important landmarks and discussing them with their teachers.
- Kids learned how cultural heritage could be represented through computers, and designed a paper prototype of the final experience, with buttons, statues and cultural spots of their city.
- The prototype was transformed in a fully functioning web-based 3D environment.
I was part of the third stage, where I developed the 3D application in coordination with the school. While being supervised by two expert members of the lab, I was in charge of the development and I could decide what technologies I wanted to use and how to use students’ drawings. I decided to use Unity and transform the drawings into 3D models by hand, using Blender.
The application ran on a web-page to maximize accessibility and maintain the ability to embed it on web totems with ease.
There’s little info on this project online, but something can be found here (in Italian).