AVI-CH 2018 - Advanced Visual Interfaces for Cultural Heritage

The rapid development of ICT and the Internet has enabled CH institutions to provide access to their collections in multiple various ways, both onsite and online, and to attract even wider audiences than those that visit the physical museums. In parallel and part of the above, there is an enormous growth in user interfaces and in information visualization technologies. The range of interfaces is growing by the day – from tiny smart watch screens to wall-size large public displays. Regarding virtual advanced interfaces, there are several successful examples, for instance, applications of 3D technologies for virtual museums. 
The use of (web) 3D in cultural heritage promotion allows the general public to live immersive experiences in virtual, reconstructed locations, like ancient towns and locations, and to visit existent, but remotely located locations, such as world-wide cultural institutions (such as Google Art Project). For preservation purposes, web 3D provides scholars and cultural heritage professionals with a way to consult and maintain visual repositories of real exhibits, with the possibility of visualizing, comparing and studying 3D digital equivalents of real artworks physically situated in different locations. Cultural heritage is one challenging domain of application for such novel ICT technology. CH is ubiquitous – just look around you. 
There is an abundance of CH related information available, about almost every object we can think of. How can we access and enjoy this information in Ubiquitous Computing scenario? Advanced and natural human-computer interaction is a key factor in enabling access to cultural heritage. Visual interfaces, whether they are tiny mobile screens or large wall mounted displays, can all be part of a ubiquitous CH infrastructure, where information can be personalized and displayed/projected, on screens or overlaid on real objects and advanced form of interaction could be experimented with (e.g., gestural interaction, augmented interaction, vocal interaction, etc.). 
Following the wealth of studies and publications in recent years focusing on exploring the potential of novel technology to enhance CH experience, the success of AVI-CH 2016 (that yielded a follow-up special issue focused on advances visual interfaces for cultural heritage), and considering that 2018 has been declared the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the goal of the workshop is again to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in exploring the potential use of state-of-the-art advanced visual interfaces in enhancing our daily cultural heritage experience.