ABOUT THE PROJECT
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Admire the Ghent Altarpiece through special glasses.
In Ghent, the restoration works on St. Bavo's Cathedral have been fully completed. Main feature: a new hypermodern visitor centre for the Ghent Altarpiece. In the cathedral’s crypt, Happiness Brussels and Bliss Content have created an impressive Augmented Reality tour focusing on the cathedral and its most famous work of art, the Ghent Altarpiece. The project was commissioned by Alfavision.
Using AR glasses (the Microsoft Hololens 2.0), visitors go on a journey into the digital past, to relive the rich history of the Ghent Altarpiece and St. Bavo's Cathedral. At the end of the digital tour, visitors can admire the real Ghent Altarpiece in all its glory.
We are very proud of this great AR project at this beautiful location, on one of the world's most iconic works of art. More than 150 AR glasses are used, which is completely unique.
MICROSOFT HOLOLENS 2.0
The Hololens 2.0 is Microsoft's take on Augmented Reality. It uses holograms to display information, blend with the real world, or even simulate a virtual world, using multiple sensors, advanced optics and holographic processing melting seamlessly with its environment.
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TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES
During this project, a number of technical challenges originated in some world firsts.
Dynamic flow & navigation
A full true-to-life automatic navigation with virtual arrows, feet and direction indicators provides each visitor with the best and easiest experience.
Interactive 3D AR assistant
This digital assistant will check whether visitors wear the glasses correctly, reassures and guides the visitor through this new experience and will also address visitors walking in the wrong direction.
Custom Mobile Device Management
A tailor-made monitoring tool for staff checks the installation/circuit 7/7, 24/24 for malfunctions, battery status and user flow.
High quality 3D models
Special 3D models, suited and optimized for mobile AR, combining a good polycount with high visual image quality.
Dynamic load balancing
Smart programming guarantees AR scenes to load in the background, instead of at the start of each tour.
FROM SKETCH TO 3D
Alfavision first developed the visuals for this digital tour from real pen sketches on paper. They sketched the story scenes, and then we digitalized them to add structure. This structuring is done, based on historically correct line drawings. The digitalised drawings are then converted to 3D models with the correct rendering.
