Virtual reality time travelling part 2/2

Following on from the virtual reality model of the Turkish mosque in part one, part two will look at how the virtual model works and also how it is used in another project by Lifeplus involving Pompeii and the people that lived there. This project provides an augmented reality which gives the visitors a glimpse into what life was like in Pompeii, as a visitor moves around the historic site they can see a combination of the digital environment & people as well as the view seen by the tourist of the actual site.



How this works is by a camera that is mounted on a head display that captures the view where the visitor is looking. The information is fed to the software that the visitor has to carry in a back pack. The downside to this is that the user must carry about this equipment where ever they go. Obviously as technology advances and things get smaller and smaller this would gradually become less of a problem.

Unfortunately as there is nothing left of the original Nottingham medieval castle left besides a few Bailey walls this augmented reality can not really be used for the castle. It seems that after looking at just these two projects, the potential of using virtual and augmented reality allows that extra bit of real-time interactivity for an audience. For a museum visitor touching objects and looking at information and also experience life as it was can only be a good thing.

In terms of a museum orientated virtual reality realm a possibility of a story telling role could be established. For example having a virtual tour guide guiding a visitor through an exhibit would be both informative and also keep certainly the younger visitors engaged due to its real time computer interactivity.

'2d3' are the company who developed the software to make the Pompeii project capable are in the UK. The chief scientist at '2d3' said "The popularity of television documentaries and dramatisations using computer-generated imagery to recreate scenes from ancient history demonstrates the widespread appeal of bringing ancient cultures to life"

Web links
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3472589.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3954659.stm
http://www.2d3.com/application/?v=2
http://lifeplus.miralab.unige.ch/HTML/home.htm