The term on-line Virtual Museum, that was first used by Tsichritzis and Gibbs [Tsichritzis, Gibbs 1991], describes a museum designed in the nominal world of a computer and existing in the Internet, giving the visitor the illusion of being present in an actual museum [Mateevitsi et al 2008]. Often this term is referred to digital on line copies of real museums or of their collections.

Virtual Museums that are only partially re-usable, as referred to installations set-ups, multimedia datasets, software tools, creation pipeline.

A Virtual Museum which is playable continuously in time.

applications whose software or hardware components are not publicly available, whatever the reason (technical need or political choice) of such lack of availability, but which can be potentially fruited in any place at the same conditions, without a binding link between the application's physical placement and its contents

Digital Preservation is the process of preserving digital assets used in Virtual Museum domain for the longer period possible. In a wider sense, it is a “set of activities required to make sure digital objects can be located, rendered, used and understood in the future. This can include managing the object names and locations, updating the storage media, documenting the content and tracking hardware and software changes, to make sure objects can still be opened and understood” (source: http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/what-is-digital-preservation/).

"Digital preservation combines policies, strategies and actions to ensure access to reformatted and born digital content regardless of the challenges of media failure and technological change. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time."(ALA 2007:2)

It includes “the act of maintaining information, in a correct and Independently Understandable form, over the Long Term" (CCSDS 2002: 1-11), and "all activities concerning the maintenance and care for/curation of digital or electronic objects, in relation to both storage and access." (Research Councils UK 2008: 6)

applications that are aimed at advertising and promoting specific cultural heritage items. They are designed and implemented with the primary aim of capturing and maintaining attention until the main promotional messages are passed through. Such applications may greatly vary in their approach depending on the target population specifically addressed.

a Virtual Museum which is fully or partially re-usable in other digital applications. Since a Virtual Museum, in the Digital Heritage domain, is a combination of digital content, software and hardware, the kind of re-usability might regard one or all those elements

Metadata containing level of accuracy, type of MM data, reliability, communication channel for which they are built, type of license, datasets are preserved in some sort of repository, accessible and visible to some users.

in Computer Graphics, Real-time 3D is concerned with producing and analyzing 3D scenes in real time, frame by frame depending on the user input, using the Graphics Processing Unit. Real-time 3D is a very important aspect in applications like video games where user interaction in running time is an important part of deciding what to be drawn.

means interactive viewing of scientific data sets over the web. Because scientific data sets are in the gigabyte size range, it is difficult to send the entire data set over the network. Extraction, processing, network latency and rendering add up and make the proposition of near real-time interactive visualization a challenge. Moreover, the client will have a limited amount of memory and CPU power for viewing and interacting with the data

VM applications that are meant to support and enhance research. It also includes applications that, due to their innovative character, may sustain research in other related fields such as: ICT, augmented reality, Artificial intelligence, Virtual Worlds and Serious Games, Geography etc…The considered applications are often prototypes and demos endowed with specific innovative functionalities and can cover specific issues

A process to add content keywords or phrases that users assign to digital assets in order to classify them, this process can be semi -automated by allowing users to create pool of tags that can be automatically revised , merged or associated to the right digital asset 

it stands for the belief that individual is present in the artificial environment generated by the computer. That is possible to study by following the categories like visual features of the virtual environment itself, the grade of isolation from the physical environment and the kind of natural gestures in interaction and self-control in the virtual environment. It involves [low sense of presence] up to high [sense of presence]

it stands for the belief that individual is present in the artificial environment generated by the computer. That is possible to study by following the categories like visual features of the virtual environment itself, the grade of isolation from the physical environment and the kind of natural gestures in interaction and self-control in the virtual environment. It involves [low sense of presence] up to high [sense of presence]

Serious games are games that do not have entertainment, enjoyment, or fun as their primary purpose

It is an interface that works as a line of motion sensing input devices. It enables users to control and interact with consoles or computers without any devices (i.e. mouse, joystick etc.), using spoken commands

Tangible interaction, or [Tangible User Interface] (TUI), in an approach to interaction that allows a user to interact with digital information through their physical environment. Tangible interaction was first defined in 1992, when Durrell Bishop created the Marble Answering Machine (1), in which a marble was used to represent a message on a telephone answering machine. Dropping the marble back into the dish would replay the message or return the call. Since then, tangible interaction has evolved to include new interfaces, including "smart objects" which are physical objects that have been embedded with sensors that collect information associated with interaction and link it with the associated application (2).