Why Historical Reconstruction? Part 1/2

With ever advancing computer technology, applications and the techniques to display information on varying platforms, historical reconstruction and digitization of artefacts will always play a part in our lives. Preserving cultural heritage and keeping history alive through techniques that can extend our perceptive capacity and understanding furthermore than photographic evidence could.

Virtual models can provide new perspectives and the potential to transcend from a physical location such as a museum room into a part of history using methods such as virtual reality. Various ancient reconstructed sites presented in 3D include Pompeii in Greece & Rome in Italy.

Using real-time techniques in this context offers a range of opportunities for detailed reconstruction heritage sites to be viewed and explored with a user being able to navigate through a place that is difficult to get to or does not exist anymore, thus increases one intellectual capacity of the environment and the history in that specific time period (Zuffo, M. (2007).

Virtual environments give users the possibilities of placing them in the environment and maintaining normal everyday parameters of a users height and view angle so that it is easy to understand spatial awareness and properties of buildings and artefacts (Zara, J. 2004). Other applications may allow a user to navigate freely by also flying, so that a user has total interactive freedom in the immersive virtual environment.

A virtual environment that has been historically reconstructed was Rome (Rome Reborn blog post from an earlier date). The work developed here ignited my interest in the subject of historic reconstruction. The Rome project and the Sao Paolo reconstruction of 1911 (Zuffo, M) gave me an understanding of how the process works. From the early stages of research, modelling and finally visualisation. The aim of the later was to provide an in depth 3D visual representation of how the city of Sao Paolo looked like in the early 20th century. Below is a Perspective render of cathedral (IgrejadaS´e), Germania and Casa Lebre buildings from the project.

References

Gaitatzes, A., Chritopoulos, D., Voulgari, A., Roussou, M. (2001) Hellenic Cultural Heritage through Immersive Virtual Archaeology.
Hall, T., Benford, S., Bowers, S (2002) The Visitor as Virtual Archaeologist: Explorations in Mixed Reality Technology to Enhance Educational and Social Interaction in the Museum.
Zuffo, M., Cabral, M., Nomura, L., Nagamura, M., Andrade, F., Ghirotti, S., Belloc, O., (2007)X3D Experiences on Historical Architectural Digital Reconstruction: A case Study of Sao Paulo city in 1911.
Zara, J. (2004) Virtual Reality and Cultural Heritage on the Web.

Weblinks

http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/

“I hear and I forget. I see and I understand. I do and I remember.” -Confucius

Museum exhibits are constructed with technology that can in effort bring the past to life, to reconstruct the subject matter and environment in a way that it engages a visitor's perception to that of aesthetically pleasing or to push the observer closer to the actual experience.
In terms of immersive 3D environments a certain amount of realism is needed, and thus physical behaviours of the real world are reproduced. With this, and also a visitors meaningful engagement with the environment a 'virtual presence' is created (Di Blas 2005). This could be though visitors mind casting themselves fictitiously into the period of time that the exhibit is or by a means of engaging them in a reproduced surrounding such as real-time applications like augmented and virtual realities.

Through an interactive environment a visitor is convinced that they are in a different 'world' or time period (Negroponte 2003) however this is only as effective as the virtual presence created by the visitor. The understanding of how a real place existed can only be defined by the user and how effective the graphics and interactive elements are (Di Blas 2005). This is true for the most part. If a visitor gets bored, they will move on to the next exhibit. In terms of placing the Nottingham castle 3D reconstruction in this situation I believe it would need more than a simple screen and a means of navigating through the space.

Historical Recreations allows museum guests to travel back into periods of time, and experience events as they occurred hundreds or thousands of years ago. The technicological progress that has been made in this area (including the website representation) gives a sense of digital storytelling that engages a visitor. Information can be experienced within a virtual environment or combined with physical artefacts (Murry 1998, Bimber 2003).

The means of how Museum exhibitions can excite, entertain, and also educate guests directly links to the users experience and 'living through' a narrative that can engage and whilst they interact with the environment.

References

Di Blas N., Gobbo E., Paolini P., (2005) 3D Worlds and Cultural Heritage: Realism vs. Virtual Presence, Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Negroponte, N., (2003) Virtual Reality in Museums, Sunrise Virtual reality.
Murry, J.H. (1998) Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative Cyberspace. ISBN 0-262-63187-3, MIT Press, 1998.
Bimber O., Miguel Encarnacao L., Schmalstieg D., (2003) The Virtual Showcase as a new Platform for Augmented Reality Digital Storytelling

Reconstruction and Representation

The preservation of cultural heritage through the means of virtual reconstructions has evolved in the last decade with the direct boost of internet based 3D applications and multimedia technologies. Virtual reconstructions or archaeological artefacts and sites have been a common place in museums where visitors can walk through a space and view them in a 'reconstructed environment' thus to recontextualize them in their original state in which these artefacts once were. This can be seen in the Eternal Egypt Project. The perception of replacing the tomb of King Tutankhamun into a three dimension model is clearly a benefit as the tomb is now empty.

The method of representing this information is as important as the content itself, studies regarding the use of such virtual representations show that visitors were encouraged with the use of the virtual space online. (Thomas and Carey 2005).

With use of advancing technology such as the internet websites can display historically reconstructed sites and artefacts (http://www.timeref.com/3dindex.htm) that may no longer exist. Alternatively artefacts that may be scattered over the globe or too fragile to travel can be combined and represented on an online virtual exhibition. Where, these exhibitions can offer 3D digitized models as well as information related to the content (Pavlidis 2006) which could be placed in a virtual space such as a exhibition hall to give the visitor a sense of being in the museum and reflect on the content (Corcoran et.al 2002).Common features of the above examples is simplicity of use, which is understandable - If a visitor in a real museum cant find a certain exhibit, frustration would occur and possibly putting them off from the exhibit all together!

Certainly museums now have technology that can re-presentation an exhibit on the internet but also in a physical state in a real life exhibit through the means of lighting, architecture and climate control. The use of such a collaboration and juxtaposing the past and present by means of technology, virtual information and the physical artefacts is not only a form of entertainment, but an educational tool which helps visitors make a personal connection Tolva (2005).

Virtual exhibits offer a way to complement a real exhibition, increasing it's scope and impact. As can be seen in earlier posts describing the reconstruction of Pomeii & the work by Earthworks, the use of combining varying media and a real-time experience engages an audience.

References

Corcoran, F., Demaine, J., Picard, M., Dicaire, L.G and Taylor, J. (2002) INUIT3D: An Interactive Virtual 3D Web Exhibition, Proceedings of the Conference on Museums and the Web 2002, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
G. Pavlidis, D., Tsiafakis, F., Arnaoutoglou, C., Chamzas (2006) MOMI: A Dynamic and Internet- Based 3D Virtual Museum of Musical Instruments, Xanthi, Greece
Thomas, W. A. and Carey, S (2005), Actual/Virtual Visits: What are the Links?, International conference on Museums and the Web 2005, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Tolva, J. (2005), Recontextualizing the Collection: Virtual Reconstruction, Replacement and Repatriation, International Conference on Museums and the Web 2005, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Weblinks

http://www.eternalegypt.org - The Eternal Egypt Project
http://www.timeref.com/3dindex.htm - 3D reconstructions of historical buildingshttp://www.ipet.gr/momi/ - Museum of Musical Instruments

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

Virtual reality time travelling part 1/2

Virtual reality has always been an interest of mine and after finding 'Miralab' - a research lab that work in the domains of mixed reality and 3D multimedia applications. There were two articles on the BBC new website (links below) about virtual reality and augmented design.The development of a virtual reality Turkish mosque dating from the 16th century that allows a user to move around and explore the building in real-time using a mouse and the possibility to zoom in on detailed mosaics.

"The technology allows you to restore endangered sites, with the atmosphere and ambience of those buildings at that era,… We are trying to give the impression of back in time - this kind of technology could be used for a virtual museum" - Nedjma Cadi-Yazli, Miralab.

This virtual reality simulation can provide a sense of "being there" and adapting it to a virtual museum of sort where users can freely walk around and look at cultural artefacts can provide a way for people to immerse themselves in not only the past but also how culture has differed to the present.
In a way the Nottingham Castle project provides this information, users can see what buildings were present before its change in history. The aim of my historical reconstruction is to provide evidence taken from pictures and plans of the castle and providing an alternative method to castle visitors to view and learn. A 3D real-time application an be an advantage to a user as well as having existing photos, writings, and artefacts that can be simply 'viewed'.
This virtual reality technology seems to be a 'step up' from my current practice but the results are very similar in terms of a real time experience.


Web links
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3472589.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3954659.stm

Rendered Images

Below are latest rendered images from 3DS Max of the recreated castle.

"Real And Virtual Pendulums Swing As One In Mixed Reality State."

This article found on the Science Daily website interested me and thought it would be worth while commenting on the content. It is not specifically directed at my project but is an overall view virtual environments and the real world it mimics.

The article briefly gives an example of technology that can mix reality state in a physical system. The University of Illinois created a virtual pendulum that can sense the motion of a real world one and began swinging as one.

"In a mixed reality state there is no clear boundary between the real system and the virtual system. The line blurs between what's real and what isn't."
said U. of I. physicist Alfred Hubler.

Hubler also goes on to say that virtual worlds are becoming more and more accurate depictions of the real world. There could come a point, a phase transition, where the boundary between reality and virtual reality disappears, And that could present problems.

From my experience in 3D computerised technology and the output that it creates I understand that it sometimes it is difficult and nearly impossible to tell if a picture is real or not. I believe this is a benefit to society however, one of these benefits are to learn.For example Flight & driving simulators that are real and 'mimic' the real world can indeed teach people skills and use their interaction as a means of learning how to use a car, boat, plane so forth.

A virtual historical reconstructed environment of Nottingham castle I believe will also benefit society and potentially be used in the Nottingham castle museum due to the model being as accurate as the material gained from it's history. As only a small amount of the medieval castle is present visitors may use this virtual environment as a 'step up' from the existing hand made model that is viewable in the museum.



The article can be found on this websitehttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080310131511.htm