I am pleased to announce that we are seeking candidates for a PhD position in Multi-user Extended Reality (XR) Experience in Cultural Heritage at the Creative Technology Department at Bournemouth University.

This is a fully-funded PhD studentship which includes a stipend of £17,668 each year to support your living costs. The project will be delivered in collaboration with Noho Ltd, Ireland (https://noho.ie/), a specialist producer of captivating digital experiences for museum, corporate, and broadcast clients.

The deadline for application is 28th February 2023 
Starting date: 24th April 2023 
Full description and the application instructions: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/study/courses/phd-studentship-multi-user-extended-reality-xr-experience-cultural-heritage
Contact: [log in to unmask] 
 
Project description: 

Cultural Heritage is arguably one of the leading sectors in digitalisation. The transformation of heritage assets into digital forms has widened the accessibility of people engaging with both tangible and intangible cultural heritages. Although they offer novelty and unique experiences, virtual museums still present significant challenges to match the physical experience of museum visits. The challenges are both technical and cultural.

XR technologies, including VR, AR and MR (Mixed Reality), have the potential to enhance user experiences through playful interactions, computer-generated audio, visual content and sensory input. While there is a rapidly progressing field of research in VR and its role in entertainment and audience experience, comparatively less is understood about the creative experience of building VR experiences, and its role in digital cultural heritage.

This project seeks to fully explore the potential of XR in digital cultural heritage and its role as a collaborative tool to support creativity and look at the XR design process from the curator’s perspective. The project will study multi-user XR experience in cultural heritage and explore user interactions with physical and virtual objects/spaces, as well as the critical transitions of user experience between physical and virtual museum assets and spaces through a unique Hybrid Spaces approach. The project will research whether tangible interfaces would have a positive effect on user experience and immersion, through which the user receives haptic feedback from the interaction with the objects and the environment. 
 
Candidates should have strong programming skills and or experience in games technologies (e.g. C++, C#, Unity or Unreal). 
 
First supervisor: Dr Vedad Hulusic ([log in to unmask])

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