Historical Recreation of Pompeii's Macellum in VR

What would it look like inside of a museum exhibit?

Before adding any kind of virtual reality experience, the museum would have to decide how important it is for virtual reality to be part of the overall museum exhibit.

If the museum wants to have virtual reality as a supplement to the information it's trying to portray, then the museum can dedicate some out-of-the-way area to the experience. Several rooms can be built and set up with virtual reality equipment. Staff can monitor and time how long patrons have been in the virtual reality exhibit in order to keep the queue. While patrons are waiting, staff can catch the attention of the next several people in line and inform them of how to use the equipment, how to avoid hitting walls, and what they can do in the virtual environment.

If the museum wants virtual reality to be the focus of the exhibit, then the museum should treat the exhibit much like an amusement park ride. A small group of patrons, perhaps 8-12 people, will be led into a large room. The room should be large enough for the group of patrons to comfortably walk around. Cameras will keep track of the patron's positions and the virtual reality exhibit will place avatars in the virtual environment to represent real people they should be walking around and dodging in real life.

In this 15 minute tour, a staff member will help patrons put on the virtual reality headsets and inform them of safety guidelines. The staff member will serve as your virtual tourguide and can guide the museum patrons around historical recreations of ancient sites in virtual reality. This gives the museum the potential to show off one historical site in detail or the tour can cycle through several historical sites within those 15 minutes.

If the museum wants to have this virtual reality focused museum exhibit, I imagine it would be very popular. To keep lines manageable, tickets would have to be bought alongside museum admission tickets for specific time slots, much like Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry does for the U-505 submarine tour. Many museums even have a waiting room for the next group in line that will play a documentary while the patrons wait for their turn. A waiting room like this can teach the museum patrons some history and provide supplemental information in preparation for the virtual reality experience.