A Future built on the Past


Future generations will rely on the artefacts that we leave behind to tell stories upon which civilisations develop. Each era has its specific communication technology, and with the passage of time such technology became outdated and in some cases even undecipherable. Thus, human history spanning the last five millenia is a combination of pure conjecture in the oldest cases, interpretation where modern man is able to decipher the remnants of information, whilst curated facts are the norm in most recent years with an aim to leave clear facts for future generations. It is necessary for societies to know where they have been and the voyage that has led to a current point, in order to be able to navigate its future. Societal values are built on recounted stories that belies the influences upon the generations of a nation. A society without a past has a difficult future. Social culture is built on customs and superstitions, stories and beliefs, that will continue to morph society with technology and its influences to continue building on the civilisation. It is a necessity therfore that cultural heritage is disseminated and passed onto the young in order to inculcate the love for nationhood, and paint a true picture of where that nation stands in the bigger picture of the world community of people. As the dissemination of information is becoming even more computer based, with multi-media forming the core of the internet, it is becoming ever more challenging to be able to attract younger generations towards the written/printed word.


Re-Living Our History


Virtual reality is promising to feature strongly among the next technology disruptors that will influence soecietal norm, especially if the MetaVerse takes flight. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to electronic platforms for teleworking, e-learning and enterntainment, as people were driven to their homes to minimise transmission of the virus. The current technology platforms provide for audio and video but do not offer presence and immersion.

The Re-Live History research project explored how best to develop historically accurate VR immersive experiences and how these will be received by educators. With the vast array of digital media entertainment in the form of video-on-demand, as well as computer games, youngsters are not excited to learn using traditional history text-books. Historical movies with their artistic inaccuracies on the other hand, make these genres close to useless in the classroom. The field of edutainment requires the effort to match the excitement of entertainment and use mixed reality to develop learning assets that are historically accurate and yet will meet the appetite for excitement to learn by the upcoming generations.

Read more about the project by reading the press release, an academic paper on the use of Motion Capture in our project, and a full open access article about the Re-Live History Project.

The Re-Live History Project (REP-2021-014) was partially funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) under the Research Excellence Programme.