Investigating Depth Perception in Immersive Hypothetical Reconstructions: 1816 Canova’s Exhibition in Spirito Santo Church in Bologna

Digital hypothetical 3D reconstructions are often presented through precomputed visualizations, nevertheless, new Extended Reality (XR) technologies allow the users to experience the same architectonic spaces in a much more effective and immersive way. Different technologies provide different levels of immersion and quality, and if not properly used sometimes they could distort the perception of such spaces rather than improve it. Virtual spaces captured as spherical panoramas and visualized through a headset, sometimes are perceived as too big or too far but feel of the right size when viewed through a fully explorable Virtual Reality (VR) real-time rendered interactive experience. This observation leads to interesting hypotheses related to how different immersive visualization technologies influence our perception of depth and the interpretation of the size and shape of virtual architectonic spaces. The case study of the hypothetical virtual 3D reconstruction of Canova’s exhibition, held in 1816 in the Spirito Santo Church in Bologna (presented at the Notte Europea dei Ricercatori—Society held in Cesena), is a valuable opportunity to investigate the criticalities and potentialities of advanced immersive visualization technologies in the architectural field, with a particular focus on the perception of depth and size of objects and architectonic spaces. Thus, this research aims to investigate the state of the art of the most popular available immersive and non-immersive visualization modes and technologies (e.g., mono and stereo still images and animated videos, spherical 360° panoramas, VR interactive experiences) and investigate how much, and under which circumstances, such new technologies can improve or undermine the perception of architectonic spaces.