10 virtual tours for Jena's places of culture and knowledge

Jena-based rooom AG further develops a wide range of 3D applications at the "JenaVsVirus" camp

More than 180 participants and a total of 17 final project ideas - that was the conclusion of the "JenaVsVirus" camp organized by the JENA Digital network and the Jena Economic Development Agency.

Idea: Making currently closed cultural venues accessible

One of the projects deals with the question of how to make cultural sites accessible to the people of Jena even though they are currently closed. The answer: online via virtual 3D tours. Ten Jena institutions can now be visited from the comfort of your own couch thanks to the JenaVsVirus camp. Strolling through the Phyletic Museum, strolling through the Botanical Garden or observing the stars in the Zeiss Planetarium - this is now also possible virtually thanks to technology from Jena.

Digital showcase offers insights into places of culture, nature and knowledge

The idea and implementation of the "Culture at home - from Jena with love" project was provided by Jena-based rooom AG. Together with participants of the camp, the new Kultur zuhause platform was created in just five days, which now offers insights into various cultural, natural and knowledge sites in Jena as a digital showcase.

Especially in times of limited direct contact, digital cultural and educational offerings provide the opportunity for active participation in social life,

says Hans Elstner, CEO of rooom AG and supporter of the entire "JenaVsVirus" camp.

How is a museum digitized?

But how is an entire museum digitized?

To create a virtual tour, we use a special 360° 3D camera to take pictures from several viewpoints. The number of these points depends on the size of the object. We need up to 300 images to digitize a museum. The resulting data is then combined using software to create the 360-degree tours, which everyone can now walk through at home on Kultur,

says Elstner.

10 institutions digitized in 5 days

Together with the EU innovation project cultur3D at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the camp team digitized a total of ten cultural and educational institutions in Jena in just five days, which can now be visited free of charge every day and night without admission controls or queues.

Michael Lörzer, Director of the Thuringian University and State Library (ThULB), is enthusiastic about the potential of digitization:

Digitization of cultural assetsoffers a wide range of opportunities to interact with our cultural heritage. The 360° models provide fantastic insights into individual places, buildings and institutions and offer a glimpse of the potential of digitization.

Cultural digitization inspires

As the initiator of the JenaVsVirus Camp, Cluster Manager Domenique Dölz is proud of the resulting project:

'Together with business, science and the citizens of our city, we wanted to develop real solutions in the Corona crisis. We are therefore pleased that a project team with the appropriate expertise has dedicated itself to the current restrictions in the cultural sector and that a new digital cultural offering for our urban society has been developed in record time that can also be used in the long term.

Because,

the offering is to be expanded in the future to include interactive elements such as virtual tours and lectures and thus become a digital learning and experience platform,

Dölz gives an outlook on how the resulting solution will be further developed in the future.

The Kultur zuhause portal is provided free of charge by rooom AG.

Facilities that can already be visited digitally

The following facilities can currently be visited there:

• Botanical Garden
• German Optical Museum (D.O.M.)
• Fox Tower
• Literature Museum Romantikerhaus Jena
• Phyletic Museum
• Schiller's Garden House
• SCHOTT Villa
• Thuringian University and State Library (THULB)
• Main University Building of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena
• Zeiss Planetarium Jena