Exploring Palladio’s Villa in Veneto with Ventuz

There are only very few things in the world that reflect luxury and class quite as much as an Italian villa. But what few people know is that they are rich in history, a formidable example of architectural movements and display some of the finest art known to mankind.

A permanent installation at the Villa Contarini in Padua, Italy, now sheds some light on the hidden treasures that are the villas of the region of Veneto. The agency NiceFall, in collaboration with UBIK Teatro, utilized the Ventuz software suite for an interactive setup that combines high-end technology with classic culture.

The installation consists of a circular floor and a curved wall, both using short throw projectors due to the limited space in the room. Visitors are invited to step into the projection on the floor which shows a map of the province of Venetia. The visitor is accompanied at each step by a virtual magnifying lens that allows him to explore the area more closely. If he chooses to rest the lens on one of the highlighted villas, movies and multimedia content are activated on the curved screen to give detailed information on the particular villa, showing architectural features as well as cultural and historic facts about the building and the surrounding area. During these presentations, the visitor can move around freely in the room or stop the playback by stepping onto the Stop sign on the floor.

NiceFall used three Kinect 2 devices to detect the motion of the visitor. The data from these devices is processed through a custom software application and imported as TUIO packets into Ventuz, which manages the interactivity as well as the multimedia content playback on both floor and curved screen.

The decision to use Ventuz for this project derived from the need to combine 4k movie clips with CGI graphics in a real-time environment to provide interactivity. Additionally, the mapping and warping features of Ventuz allowed NiceFall to manage all outputs easily and without the need for additional software or hardware tools.