Through thousands of years of history to the development of digital technologies we know today, people have had the need to mark important events that have impacted their lives. Although monuments around the world are functional and stylish depending on the geographic position, the prevailing culture or age, the purpose of construction is in most cases similar.

The aim of the construction was most often to give honor, celebration of achievement or simply preserving memories of a certain person, a historical event, or a cultural legacy. Indeed, the monuments allowed people a retrospective view of their own historical work, and a subsequent analysis of the causes and consequences that the spirit of a certain time left in order to avoid mistakes from history.

Virtualization of the world around us
In the early stages of research and development of digital form of reality, the widest range was virtual walks and a 360 ° virtual space view, with expanded Google Maps and Google Earth as a pioneering application in the field, despite being intended to provide a different service .

Although initially the interactivity of virtual reality was limited to moving in predefined directions, it showed the direction in which technology development would move. Even with these limitations, virtual walks have gained wide popularity because they have enabled the wider population to experience world-famous attractions such as the Acropolis, the Louvre Museum, the Giza Pyramid, and natural sites such as the Great Coral Reef or Mt. Everest.

The cause for the active global virtualization of historical monuments and sights was the destruction of a historic museum in Mosul, Iraq in early 2015. In the action of the ISIS terrorist organization, hundreds of art and historical figures have been destroyed, some dating back to the time of ancient Mesopotamia. The direct result of the action was “RecoVR Mosul – Collective Reconstruction”, a crowdfunding project that virtually recreated destroyed items. REKREI is the continuation of the Mosul Project, which aims to create a virtual museum in which the world’s anthropological and cultural legacy would be immersed. The goal is to preserve ancient history witnesses in the case of natural or man-made disasters such as Mosul destruction, devastating earthquakes in Nepal, the siege of Palmyrie, California fires, and other dangers.

Monuments of the Future
“Fast forward” in 2019 brings us to the lobby of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Extensible Real-Time Technology (XR): Virtual (VR), Expanded (AR) and Mixed (MR) Reality realize the exponential integration of digital content into everyday life. With effective elimination of time constraints, financial costs, unnecessary crowds and other difficulties that may arise from actual travel, visiting virtual monuments offers a high level of potential for creating additional values ​​that would enrich our product or service. The comparative advantages achieved by AR technology, especially in the tourism industry, are currently immeasurable.

If we focus on our own environment, there is a noticeable trend in the growth of virtual and extended reality service users between public and state institutions, tourist communities as well as among specialized societies for the preservation of cultural heritage and interested private users.

Awareness of the need to focus on the future and solutions instead of the difficulties can finally be seen in the wider Croatian economic environment. The interaction with the virtual environment provides the ability to provide additional content that enriches the user’s “experience” and satisfaction with the service. Following the latest trends, in Culex we decided to premiere a range of services in our own environment. The cooperation with the tourist community of Vukovar-Srijem County resulted in the realization of projects of the expanded reality of VSŽ-AR, VICTour, Bibliobusa and a ten-minute VR simulation of a flight flight to the Memorial Center of Vukovar.

Gallery 1.

Bista: Rene Matoušek

Virtual Bista: Rene Matoušek

Virtual Bista: Rene Matoušek

Inaccurate and easy-to-use AR technology with mobile devices enables deployment and download of services virtually no spatial constraints. By further developing and expanding the 5G network and infrastructure, AR services will become a standard part of everyday life, while full VR tourism experiences will be reserved for space travel and the like. World Tech Development in 2019 will focus on the interaction and simplification of XR technology, and we will probably analyze the true effects of this time period in detail over the next decade.