Kairos – A 250 year timestamp of the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra
Kairos takes you on an audio-visual journey through the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, where you can explore the ambiance of three areas containing some of its oldest tree specimens. This project seeks to invoke a sense of inquisitiveness within its users, following the premise that if we can observe the processes of nature in virtual reality, we may become more conscious of its inner workings in real life and gain new levels of interest and appreciation for the natural world.
National
Portugal
Coimbra
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
This project’s main goal was the creation of a digital timestamp of the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, by capturing reality and thus a moment in time that can be run and visualised in 3D space (through Virtual Reality), in real-time. This digital timestamp consists of three distinct areas within the Garden, containing some of its most iconic century-old tree specimens. These areas were digitised through photogrammetry to create point clouds, which were then used as the basis of an immersive audio-visual experience whose main goal was to convey the ambiance of the Garden, along with showing people its natural processes usually hidden to the naked eye with the aim to rekindle our relationship with nature. These natural processes were simulated over the point clouds and consist of the areas flora and fauna, including the tree’s vascular systems and underground root networks, following the premise that if we can observe the processes of nature in VR, we may become more conscious of its inner workings in real life, and thus gain new levels of appreciation for the natural world. These three areas are virtually interconnected, simulating snippets of a memory stroll through the Garden, allowing users to freely travel from one memory to the next.
In addition to serving as a digital backup of the Garden and commemorating its 250th anniversary, this project allows anyone to access and experience this location remotely, even in face of restrictions such as ones imposed by pandemics or physical limitations, effectively allowing unlimited visits to this site of cultural heritage.
This work resulted in multimedia content consisting of PC and VR based experiences, and 360 degree videos. Both PC and VR variants were evaluated by 22 volunteers, resulting in a positive response distribution for the user’s experience in relation to their relationship with the natural world.
For more information, please visit the project's website: https://kairos.dei.uc.pt/
Virtual Reality
Data Capture
Point Clouds
Photogrammetry
Immersive Media
The conservation of the Botanical Garden is something that the University of Coimbra is working on and this has become a continuous endeavour. Belonging to one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites, it is paramount that the Botanical Garden preserves its integrity and essence. Natural disasters such as storms and the finite life-span of plant species are inevitable and have unfortunately taken out some historical trees and caused structural damage over the years. Furthermore, there are also signs of deliberate acts of degeneracy by the public, such as carvings in the neoclassical Central Square marble. Although these examples don’t all belong to the three chosen areas of capture, these instances are just to demonstrate how exposed the Garden is to external forces. That being the case, this project also functions as a digital timestamp, a sort of backup, by digitally preserving the areas within the Garden, with emphasis on one of its oldest trees: the Erythrina Crista-Galli, which is currently in a structurally vulnerable state.
The key objectives of this project consisted of grasping the Gardens ambiance, together with simulating some of its natural processes usually hidden to the naked eye, in an effort to evoke feelings of childlike wonder and inquisitiveness within its users. To achieve this, point clouds were used as the fabric of the creation of the immersive experience. By representing reality through the use of point cloud data, our focus gets taken away from the visual element’s mass, whilst maintaining a high level of surface detail of what was captured, allowing our mind to focus more on the general atmosphere and tone of the locale. This opens new potentials to explore alternate modes of perception and new visual languages. Moreover, this form of visualising data opens new gates to explore the way our memories and dreams work, emulating the way our subconscious mind stores and replays data. Similar to point clouds, dreams tend to be quite incomplete, fuzzy and sometimes unclear, yet we often seem to remember the general feelings they leave. That’s the real goal here, to be able to recreate the ambiance of a moment lost in time.
In an effort to expand audience reach and accessibility, Kairos was transformed into several multimedia formats and was made publicly available for PC, a VR headset, along with 360-degree videos to be viewed within a VR headset or through online video streaming platforms. This task got initiated through the development of a website (https://kairos.dei.uc.pt/), where I explain the ideas and motivation behind this project as a brief introduction, figures depicting how it got developed, and two download links for both Desktop and VR variants of Kairos.
In addition to this website, and due to the hardware requirements necessary to run Kairos, I elected to create videos consisting of stereoscopic (5K resolution) and monoscopic (8K resolution) 360 degree videos of the captured areas. The stereoscopic variant being aimed for the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset and YouTube VR, and the monoscopic variant to be downloaded and viewed locally on a PC, if so desired.
On a related note, a cooperation was developed between Kairos and the Department of Informatics Engineering's "FeedNPlay” display system, at the University of Coimbra. This recently implemented system consists of an array of nine vertically stacked and interconnected monitors, providing the capacity to display communicative and interactive mediums at a maximum resolution of 9720 x 1920 pixels. The endeavour of executing Kairos on this system stemmed from a mutual curiosity to determine if Kairos could successfully be run on this high resolution display at a stable frame rate of 60 FPS. Surprisingly this was the case, which lead to the creation of a demo for the inauguration of FeedNPlay. This demo is still available to be viewed at the entrance of the Department of Informatics Engineering at the University of Coimbra.
During the development of this project, I decided it would be of great importance to gather public feedback of both Desktop (PC) and VR (Oculus Quest 2) variants of Kairos. This evaluation consisted of inviting volunteers to explore this immersive experience at the Department of Informatics Engineering of the University of Coimbra, as individual sessions. Intending to expand public reach, a Desktop executable was also created and shared to those interested. A total of 22 feedback responses were obtained, which are split into three age groups: youth [15-24] (59.1%), adults [ 25-64] 31.8% and seniors [65+] (9.5%). Volunteers where then asked to fill in a web-based form designed to collect quantitative evaluations (as multiple-choice linear scales) and qualitative evaluations (as open questions), in an effort to get a better understanding of my project’s strengths and shortcomings.
One of the goals of this project is to bring people closer to nature through technology, for this reason it was regarded relevant to question my volunteer’s thoughts about their relationship with mother nature and if they regarded nature as an important aspect for their overall well-being. 68.2% of my volunteers think that society is losing touch with nature, 27.3% were unsure and the remaining 4.5% were certain of it. Moreover, 95.5% of my volunteers rated nature as being “Very Important” to our overall well-being. On a scale of 1 out of 10, the majority of my volunteers rated Kairos as having improved their appreciation for the natural world (average of 7.83), made them feel closer to nature (average of 8.55), and an increase in desire to explore nature in the real world (average of 8.27). Kairos scored an average rating of 9.5 out of 10, along with a high rating of serenity. When it came to evoked emotions, the most popular were: “Relaxed, “Calm”, “Tranquil”, followed by “Joyful”, “Nostalgic”, Wonderment”, “Curiosity” and “Childlike Wonder”.
This project was developed at the Department of Informatics Engineering at the University of Coimbra, with the guidance of professors Jorge C. S. Cardoso and Pedro Martins Carvalho.
Teresa Girão, director of the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, played a vital role in the development of this project, not only by providing exclusive access to the Garden, but also by supplying pertinent information regarding the historical background and characteristics of the Garden.
The cooperation between Kairos and the Department of Informatics Engineering’s "FeedNPlay" display system was made possible with the help of professor Tiago Martins, who's enthusiasm helped unveil the potential of Kairos for the inauguration demo of FeedNplay.
During the evaluation process I acquired feedback from 22 volunteers, comprised of the public, university students, friends and relatives, both locally and remotely (within the EU). After exploring the immersive experience, volunteers where then asked to fill in a web-based form designed to collect quantitative evaluations (as multiple-choice linear scales) and qualitative evaluations (as open questions), in an effort to gain a better understanding of the project’s strengths and shortcomings. These questions encompassed two main fields: questions relating to Kairos, its gameplay, user interaction, and other more personal questions, as to better understand my users’ background and opinions. This feedback was then taken into consideration and used to refine and improve Kairos.
Last but not least, a custom audio track, created by Coimbra-based music artist Samuel Cadima, was developed for the teaser trailer of Kairos, which couples with a voice-over by Alma Bloom, as a prelude to the natural processes occurring at the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra.
The fields of knowledge reflected in the design and development of this concept were: Data Capture and Remote Sensing, Audio-Visual Multimedia Production, Ecology, and lastly, Human-Computer Interaction.
In order to keep this project organised, a general task list was made and split into four main phases, consisting of the following: 1. Data Acquisition; 2. Data Processing; 3. Project Development; 4. Evaluation and Optimisation.
The first phase consisted of capturing all the required data from the Botanical Garden (Data Capture and Remote Sensing), this included photogrammetric data capture together with audio recordings. During the second phase, Data Processing, I carefully analysed, cleaned and refined all the captured data to ensure that these data got effectively transformed into rich point clouds. When it comes to Project Development, this phase consisted of merging all the previously collected and refined data into Unity (a 3D game engine), with the aim of creating the desired immersive environment (Audio-Visual Multimedia Production). Here I explored user interactivity, sound design and the representation of natural processes. These processes were added as visual elements to the scene, consist of some of the fauna and flora observed within each of the three captured areas, and are based on their scientific characteristics (Ecology). The final Evaluation and Optimisation phase, as the title states, was used to analyse, evaluate and optimise this immersive experience. Evaluation tests were conducted which consisted of inviting participants, in-person (PC/VR), and remotely (Desktop executable), granting them a hands-on experience of the project, followed by an evaluation form consisting of quantitative and qualitative evaluations that assessed the project’s strengths and shortcomings (Human-Computer Interaction).
Capturing and transmitting space itself is one of the leading challenges in the field of immersive media. Capturing areas such as sites of cultural heritage is part of this equation and has generally been achieved either by 360-degree video or photography. However, these methods limit the user’s full sense of depth of the image.
A solution to overcome this limitation consists of capturing real-world data through reality capture methods, resulting in a set of data points in 3D space called a point cloud. These point clouds are then typically converted into 3D polygonal meshes in an effort to create a close replica of what was captured. However, this process limits its ability to provide a deeper sense of immersion and can introduce undesirable interpolations of reality (i.e., a “soft edged” appearance which does not appeal to the eye, especially at close proximity). The fact of the matter is, point clouds are the basis of a captured surface and thus can be considered the fabric of (virtual) reality itself, metaphorically speaking. By visualising point clouds in their crude and diffused state, our focus gets taken away from the visual element’s mass, whilst maintaining a sufficient level of surface detail of what was captured for recognition, allowing our mind to focus more on the general atmosphere and tone of the locale. This opens new potentials to explore alternate modes of perception and new visual languages. Last but not least, I have planned on creating an in-situ variant of Kairos, consisting of a mixed reality experience where users would be able to theoretically interact within the real environment whilst observing its hidden natural processes and/or experience lost heritage features. To my knowledge, this has not yet been achieved in the context of nature.
This project was created in the context of digitally preserving and representing of one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites, along with showing the public some of its hidden natural processes. Furthermore, by working in a digital environment, all constraints present in the real world were unleashed, meaning that the sky was the limit when it came to how I could handle and present these data. Because of this, my methodology may be replicated to any context where the goal is to digitally represent a location, ambience, or characteristics of an area, where the need for effective visual communication for educational, scientific and/or entertainment purposes is of upmost importance.
The technology used to acquire and process all the data for the development of Kairos was relatively accessible and is not limited by geographic location, meaning that it can be easily replicated in other locations. However, some considerations are to be had when trying to capture areas containing a lot of reflective, glossy or transparent surfaces such as structures with a lot of glass, for example, as these may result in a noisy or incomplete data set. Moreover, photogrammetric capture is highly dependent on weather conditions and requires relatively stable atmospheric conditions (low lighting variations and low wind conditions) for a quality capture. High-end remote sensing equipment may be used to circumvent these limitations, however, these are not as easily accessible.
As a technology-driven species, we have been slowly losing touch with nature and have become more distant to its life-giving benefits. This project aims to trigger our innate “biophilia” (a term used to describe our affiliation with mother nature, its positive impact on our mental health and our overall well-being), by rekindling our connection to the natural world, not as a tool to substitute nature and reality itself, but rather as a tool to enhance it. To achieve this, I simulated some of the area’s natural processes usually hidden to the naked eye, with the aim of invoking a sense of inquisitiveness within my users. These natural processes consist of the areas flora and fauna, with emphasis on the tree's vascular systems and underground root networks, following the premise that if we can observe the processes of nature in VR, we’ll become more conscious of its inner workings in real life and gain new levels of interest and appreciation for the natural world. Here I studied if a point cloud-based VR experience of nature can transmit similar positive psychological benefits of actual nature, through evaluation tests. These tests resulted in a positive response distribution for the user’s experience in relation to their relationship with the natural world.
