Virtual reality takes users back to a 15th-century community of religious women
USC Dornsife’s Sabina Zonno and Lynn Dodd receive a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to develop an immersive experience around a Renaissance-era manuscript. [4¾ min read]
To create a virtual reality for the manuscript and its context, Zonno and Dodd, along with Eric Hanson, associate professor of cinematic practice at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, will first take thousands of still photography images of the manuscript and beguinage, the latter of which still exists. Those photos will be used to build three-dimensional models, which are then brought to a game engine unit (a framework used by developers to construct video games), which renders them so they are ready to use in a virtual reality headset, Hanson said. He added that virtual reality gives an experience far deeper than that of film.
Dodd said that in addition to connecting people with the past, virtual reality can help bring them together in the present. A virtual recreation of a prayer session at a mosque, for example, could show translations of the prayers and songs involved, and let users watch adults and children in their everyday interactions within the building. Such an experience might help “demystify” Islam and counter Islamophobia, she added.
See the full story here: https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3348/virtual-reality-manuscript/