ARCO is developing innovative technology for creating virtual exhibitions of museum artefacts for display in augmented and virtual reality environments accessible both within museums and over the Internet. The museum artefacts are represented as collections of digital media objects such as 3D models, photographs, movies, textual descriptions, etc. The 3D models are created using a stereo photogrammetry system called the Object Modeller Tool, which includes a simple software interface. A 3D modelling tool called the Interactive Model Refinement and Rendering Tool is also being developed to enable further refining of the 3D models. Virtual object representations are organised into virtual exhibitions using an XML enabled Object Relational Database managed by a Content Management Application. The presentation layout of the virtual exhibition is based on X-VRML templates, which dynamically generate Augmented Reality Interfaces as either web browser VR environments or full-screen AR environments. All system components are integrated by the use of an XML Data Exchange format providing component interoperability. ARCO also defines an original Metadata Schema that allows museums to describe the cultural objects and their multimedia content at all stages from digitisation to visualisation.

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