“MiRA: Mixed Reality Ambientale. Un CMS per l’exhibit design museale” is among the projects funded for the DTC call dedicated to RSI - Research, Development and Innovation projects, coming in twelfth place in the ranking that includes a total of 80 projects.
The MiRA project promotes an advanced paradigm of interaction and engagement in exhibition spaces, with the aim of improving the communication of cultural heritage. The aim is to develop a software platform that allows the creation of effective interactive installations even in the absence of IT experts, instead strengthening the professional figures who already collaborate with the Places of Culture. The proposal starts from the observation that many museum exhibits are “invisible” because they are not exhibited, or difficult to understand because they are exhibited without contextualization and without the information necessary to be fully appreciated.
The effectiveness of the principle of Augmented Reality, augmented reality with overlapping information, or Mixed Reality, the intersection of real and virtual objects, typically implemented with viewers in close contact with the user - raising issues with hygiene, depreciation, management, as well as some cognitive difficulties that limit the user experience, has already been widely documented.
The MiRA system will make Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality possible without any physical contact with the visitor, enhancing the exhibition spaces with the interactive and immersive explanation of the finds. The holographic effect is obtained through screens/projections positioned behind the finds, changing the viewing perspective according to the position of the visitor, which is precisely tracked thanks to infrared distance sensors (depth cam). The technological principle has already been tested and demonstrated in a relevant environment (TRL 6) with previous funding. The current project will advance the technology towards more effective usability, for visitors and for Places of Culture, crucial stakeholders with particular needs.

The goal is to transform the existing ad hoc solution into a commercial software, replicable in different contexts through a flexible, open Content Management System platform, usable even without IT experts. Museum professionals such as curators, archivists, archaeologists, exhibitors, etc. will be able to calibrate the hardware components and configure the display of information, settings or missing parts of the exhibits. A rich abacus of pre-programmed interactive experiences will also be established, but quickly customizable with the appropriate cultural, narrative and graphic content – ​​in a way comparable to templates and plugins for web CMS such as Wordpress.