Who Did What When? Discovering Complex Historical Interrelations in Immersive Virtual Reality

IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), pp. 129–137

Abstract

Traditional digital tools for exploring historical data mostly rely on conventional 2D visualizations, which often cannot reveal all relevant interrelationships between historical fragments (e.g., persons or events). In this paper, we present a novel interactive exploration tool for historical data in VR, which represents fragments as spheres in a 3D environment and arranges them around the user based on their temporal, geo, categorical and semantic similarity. Quantitative and qualitative results from a user study with 29 participants revealed that most participants considered the virtual space and the abstract fragment representation well-suited to explore historical data and to discover complex interrelationships. These results were particularly underlined by high usability scores in terms of attractiveness, stimulation, and novelty, while researching historical facts with our system did not impose unexpectedly high task loads. Additionally, the insights from our post-study interviews provided valuable suggestions for future developments to further expand the possibilities of our system.

Authors 13

1. Melanie Derksen

   TU Dortmund University

   Affiliation as printed

   TU Dortmund University

2. Mohammad Fazleh Elahi

   Bielefeld University

   Affiliation as printed

   Bielefeld University

3. Angelika Maier

   Bielefeld University

   Affiliation as printed

   Bielefeld University

4. Marius Maile

   Bielefeld University

   Affiliation as printed

   Bielefeld University

5. Ingo Pätzold

   Bielefeld University

   Affiliation as printed

   Bielefeld University

6. Jonas Penningroth

   Bielefeld University

   Affiliation as printed

   Bielefeld University

7. Markus Rothgänger

   Bielefeld University

   Affiliation as printed

   Bielefeld University

8. Philipp Cimiano

   Bielefeld University

   Affiliation as printed

   Bielefeld University

9. Erich Schubert

   TU Dortmund University

   Affiliation as printed

   TU Dortmund University

10. Silke Schwandt

    Bielefeld University

    Affiliation as printed

    Bielefeld University

11. Torsten Kuhlen Aachen

    RWTH Aachen University

    Affiliation as printed

    RWTH Aachen University

12. Mario Botsch

    TU Dortmund University

    Affiliation as printed

    TU Dortmund University

13. Tim Weißker Aachen

    RWTH Aachen University

    Affiliation as printed

    RWTH Aachen University