The CREATE project: mixed reality for design, education, and cultural heritage with a constructivist approach

The global scope of the CREATE project is to develop a mixed-reality framework that enables highly interactive real-time construction and manipulation of photo-realistic, virtual worlds based on real data sources. This framework will be tested and applied to cultural heritage content in an educational context, as well as to the design and review of architectural/urban planning settings. The evaluation of the project is based on a human-centered, constructivist approach to working and learning, with special attention paid to the evaluation of the resulting mixed reality experience. Through this approach, participants in an activity "construct" their own knowledge by testing ideas and concepts based on their prior knowledge and experience, applying these to a new situation, and integrating the new knowledge gained with pre-existing intellectual constructs. CREATE project uses a high degree of interactivity, and includes provision for other senses (haptics and sound). The application developed in CREATE are designed to run on different platforms, and the targeted running systems are SGI and PC driven, with immersive stereo-displays such as a workbench, a ReaCTor (CAVE-like environment), and a wide projection screen.