New visualization tools for sciences and humanities: databases and virtual reality

Within the scientific view, one of the major problems related to simulations developed for Virtual Reality, more specifically in research, is mainly related to the poor development of interaction between the data being displayed in the database in which they are contained, combined with the difficulty of making everything directly accessible in virtual environment. In Digital Humanities, it becomes increasingly necessary to have an instrument capable of combining scientific visualization in Virtual Reality with the access and consultation of an open repository. The work done for this thesis is based on the creation of a heterogeneous relational database called ArcheoDB, run by an open web platform, on which researchers can upload 3D content and share them with their own collaborators. The web platform and the database are alongside an application called "ArcheoDB VR Toolkit" developed with Unity Engine, which dynamically loads contents within the ArcheoDB database and visualizes them in a complex scene. This application also provide a detailed reconstruction of the various objects, the background of the discovery and the chemical analyzes made in a highly immersive way, thanks to the use of immersive visualization. Likewise, in order for the application to be 3truly innovative, it must allow not only to display 3D data, but also to interact in real time with the displayed models, enabling to enrich and modify them, based on data consultation and metadata drawn from the database.