2021 MCI Virtual Fellowship Focused on Reality Technologies and Applications for Research and Conservation
Reality technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are playing a role in the modern museum experience and allow for visitors to engage with exhibitions and collections in new ways. While these technologies are being used for education, entertainment, and visitor engagement, VR and AR may also have the potential to enhance scientific and computational imaging for research and conservation of museum collections, allowing for new opportunities for analysis, interpretation, and visualization. Yeneneh Terefe conducted a year-long remote fellowship that focused on researching the potential of reality technologies to support research and conservation through the integration of scientific and computational imaging for dynamic visualization and investigation. The remote fellowship was a reimagining of research and collaboration during the pandemic, and the research has been reassessing the potential of reality technologies in less-explored applications. The fellowship project was presented as a demo at the 2022 Smithsonian Digitization Conference on March 23, 2022, and the recording of the demo will be available soon.
