I-m-Cave: An interactive tabletop system for virtually touring Mogao Caves

This paper presents i-m-Cave, a multitouch tabletop system for virtually touring the Mogao Caves. To recreate the experience of such a tour, a field study was conducted, and identified two key design considerations - exploration and restoration. For exploration, an innovative tangible figurine that can perform human-like neck extension/flexion is developed, and users can control the figurine to freely visit every corner of the virtual caves. Furthermore, users can view authorized animations to better understand the story behind important artifacts. With respect to restoration, users can restore digital artifacts and observe the rejuvenation and aging of artifacts with midair hand gestures and mobile devices, as if the users were shuttling back and forth between the present and the past. The i-m-Cave system presents the relationships between presently damaged artifacts and their virtually restored versions, which cannot be experienced in a real tour. Finally, the system was evaluated by interviewing experts. User feedback was positive, indicating the value of the system and its design.