Virtual museums, what they are and how to visit them

Virtual museums are a significant development in the world of culture and art. Thanks to technology these digital exhibition spaces are eliminating geographical and time barriers offering anyone anywhere the possibility of discovering art collections and online historical finds. This article focuses on the concept of virtual museums, explaining how they work, and how they are created and suggesting some of the best virtual museums in the world to visit.   

Virtual museums: What are they?

A virtual museum is a digital platform available on the web that allows exploring art, historical or scientific collections through interactive or multimedia contents.

These museums are not limited by physical spaces and can contain art work, finds and information that otherwise would not be accessible to the public.

Technology Involved

The creation of a virtual museum involves the use of different technologies, including:

  • Augmented Reality (AR): combines digital elements with what we see in the real world.
  • Virtual Reality (VR): offers immersive experiences in 3D spaces.
  • 3D Modeling: creates digital representations of art works and spaces.
  • Panoramic Photos: captures images at 360° to allow a complete navigation.

Would you like to find out all possible uses of AR or VR? Read the article.

How were the first Virtual museums created?

Virtual museums began at the end of the 1990s thanks to the internet and 3D modeling software. At the beginning many museums created simple online galleries to show their collections, but over time these initiatives became increasingly more sophisticated, interactive and immersive. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this process leading many institutions to create virtual tours to keep in contact with the public.

How do virtual museums work?

 The navigating experience in a virtual museum is designed to be intuitive and captivating. Users can:

  • navigate freely: exploring the rooms of museums as if they were there in person.
  • zoom and click: zooming on details of art works and finds for a more concrete visit open multimedia pop-up windows like videos, audio files, pdf documents or web links.
  • use guided tours: following planned tours with information and audio comments.

These functions are available on various devices (PCs, smartphones, VRs) making this experience accessible to everyone.

How is a virtual museum created?

The creation of a virtual museum consists of different steps: 

  • Planning and designing: defining goals, choosing art work and designing user interface.
  • Capturing  images: using photographic devices and scanning of images to obtain detailed pictures of the art work or digital 3D reproducing of spaces through ad-hoc design software.
  • Processing: importing images in a software to be viewed; creating interactive contents and testing the system.
  • Releasing: online launch of the new virtual museum making it accessible to the public. 

Software to create virtual museums: ArredoCAD

Among the available software for the creation of virtual museums, ArredoCAD stands out for the professional functions it offers. This tool offers advanced features for 3D designing, visualizing, rendering and editing, facilitating the creation of high quality exhibition spaces. The characteristics of ArredoCAD are:

  • Intuitive interface: easy to use for those who don’t have technical skills
  • 3D realistic models: vast library made up of 30,000 3D parametric elements with the possibility to import 3D elements from outside to create detailed reproductions of art work and spaces.
  • Viewing options: users can explore spaces in real time through RealTime Player or create panoramic renderings with 360 views using DLUX, the integrated rendering engine of ArredoCAD.
  • Virtual Tour Editor: users can link different 360 views one to the other and insert multimedia elements like videos, audio files, images, work sheets, web links

Virtual exhibitions: how and which exhibitions can be visited?

Recently many institutions have supported the idea of virtual museums to increase cultural interest. Among the most popular museums offering virtual tours there are:

The Vatican museums – Online catalogues

The Vatican museums are one of the most important museum complexes with a vast collection of art work. They offer a series of virtual tours that allow exploring galleries and masterpieces while staying at home. 

The Louvre: the virtual tour 

The Louvre with the extraordinary collections displayed in the museum offers a virtual tour that allows exploring some of the most iconic art work like “the Monalisa”. This museum is a must for art lovers. Visit the Louvre museum virtually here.

The virtual tour of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

This museum is very popular for the natural history exhibitions where it is possible to see dinosaur skeletons and precious gems. The virtual tour allows discovering the exhibits in a very captivating way. Visit the virtual museum here.

Advantages of visiting virtual museums

Virtual museums offer many advantages like: 

  • Global accessibility and flexibility: users can access a virtual museum anywhere and at any time allowing anybody to explore art collections.
  • Inclusivity: ideal for persons with physical disabilities as they can visit museums that, otherwise, would not be easy to reach
  • Innovation and captivating experience: the immersive technologies make the experience more captivating
  • Cultural promotion: they contribute to spread culture all over the world.

Virtual museums are an extraordinary tool for cultural exploration and training. Discover ArredoCAD, our interior design software, and visit our News section to stay up to date about what is new in ArredoCAD. Grasp the chance and try ArredoCAD free for 30 days!