Crowd Data-driven Artwork Placement in Virtual Exhibitions for Visitor Density Distribution Planning

We propose a novel crowd data-driven optimization approach for artwork placement in virtual exhibitions. With the emerging concept of Metaverse, a multitude of users can engage with content contemporaneously in virtual exhibitions. Yet, few studies have suggested a method to resolve crowd density concentration in multiuser Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) environments. In this study, our approach leverages crowd data engaged with artworks to predict optimal placement of artworks to distribute crowd density in virtual exhibitions, prior to exhibition planning. To investigate the requirement and validity of our approach, we conducted focus group interviews and an artwork relocation experiment as preliminary studies. In the generation of solution scenes for optimal placement, our optimizer adaptively scrutinizes placeable areas with considerations of crowd density distribution, scene rationality, and artwork similarity. Through a performance comparison analysis between optimization results, we confirmed that the optimizer successfully fulfilled the intended objectives with respect to the design considerations, resolving practical scenarios in exhibition planning.