The applications developed by the DeL team run on the first Igloo Vision system in the Romanian university environment
DEL team, part of the national premiere: the applications developed by our department run on the first 360° immersive cylinder in the Romanian university system
Politehnica University of Timișoara recently inaugurated the first 360° immersive projection space from Romania — a Igloo Vision cylinder with a diameter of 6 meters, capable of simultaneously projecting onto walls and the floor, accommodating between 15 and 20 people simultaneously. The installation is part of the DigiUPT project, funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The Department of ID/IFR and Digital Education (DEL) is an active part of this premiere — as a content creator for the new facility.
Two applications developed by DeL run on the Igloo system
Two of the applications currently running on the immersive cylinder were developed by DEL team members, together with students and faculty from UPT, within the project Spotlight Heritage Timișoara:
Interactive virtual tours in Unity
The two scenarios represent interactive virtual environments created in Unity, as part of the Heritage in the Spotlight project within Timisoara 2023, which allow exploration of the interior of the Roman Catholic Church "Sacred Heart of Jesus" and the Timisoara Opera House building.
Both scenarios are based on high-fidelity 3D scans, carried out as part of the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara project. Within this project, the raw material was obtained through photogrammetry and laser scanning techniques, resulting in detailed three-dimensional models of the interior spaces.
These models were then processed and adapted for real-time use. The technical process included:
- geometry optimization (reducing the number of polygons),
- restoring and optimizing textures,
- setting up materials and lighting for rendering in Unity.
The goal of these stages was to preserve a high level of visual realism while maintaining application performance.
The result: two interactive scenarios in which the user can freely navigate and explore the spaces, benefiting from the most faithful representation of reality.
Interactive 360° video
The material consists of an interactive 360° video that presents several representative locations in Timisoara, offering the user the opportunity to visually explore the space by controlling the viewing direction.
The video content is based on aerial footage taken with a drone, captured as part of the Spotlight Heritage Timișoara project, using equipment capable of recording spherical images (360°).
Subsequently, the raw material was processed to obtain the final shape. The technical steps included:
- assembling and editing 360° video frames,
- image corrections (color, exposure) and stabilization,
- adapting the format for playback on platforms compatible with spherical content,
- integration of animated graphic elements (info-points), positioned in space and synchronized with video scenes.
The result is interactive material that combines panoramic footage with informative elements, providing an immersive and easy-to-navigate experience.
The Igloo Vision system opens new directions for the department's activity in the area of immersive educational content development, VR/XR research projects and interdisciplinary collaborations. The infrastructure allows for the validation of virtual scenes and prototypes under controlled conditions, without the individual use of headsets, facilitating collective feedback and collaborative work sessions.
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