Recreating Daily life in Pompeii

[EN] We propose an integrated Mixed Reality methodology for recreating ancient daily life that features realistic simulations of animated virtual human actors (clothes, body, skin, face) who augment real environments and re-enact staged storytelling dramas. We aim to go further from traditional concepts of static cultural artifacts or rigid geometrical and 2D textual augmentations and allow for 3D, interactive, augmented historical character-based event representations in a mobile and wearable setup. This is the main contribution of the described work as well as the proposed extensions to AR Enabling technologies: a VR/AR character simulation kernel framework with real-time, clothed virtual humans that are dynamically superimposed on live camera input, animated and acting based on a predefined, historically correct scenario. We demonstrate such a real-time case study on the actual site of ancient Pompeii.The work presented has been supported by the Swiss Federal Office for Education and Science and the EU IST programme, in frame of the EU IST LIFEPLUS 34545 and EU ICT INTERMEDIA 38417 projects.Magnenat-Thalmann, N.; Papagiannakis, G. (2010). Recreating Daily life in Pompeii. Virtual Archaeology Review. 1(2):19-23. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2010.4679OJS192312P. MILGRAM, F. KISHINO, (1994) "A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays", IEICE Trans. Information Systems, vol. E77-D, no. 12, pp. 1321-1329R. AZUMA, Y. BAILLOT, R. BEHRINGER, S. FEINER, S. JULIER, B. MACINTYRE, (2001) "Recent Advances in Augmented Reality", IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, November/December http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/38.963459D. STRICKER, P. DÄHNE, F. SEIBERT, I. CHRISTOU, L. ALMEIDA, N. IOANNIDIS, (2001) "Design and Development Issues for ARCHEOGUIDE: An Augmented Reality-based Cultural Heritage On-site Guide", EuroImage ICAV 3D Conference in Augmented Virtual Environments and Three-dimensional Imaging, Mykonos, Greece, 30 May-01 JuneW. WOHLGEMUTH, G. TRIEBFÜRST, (2000)"ARVIKA: augmented reality for development, production and service", DARE 2000 on Designing augmented reality environments, Elsinore, Denmark http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/354666.354688H. TAMURA, H. YAMAMOTO, A. KATAYAMA, (2001) "Mixed reality: Future dreams seen at the border between real and virtual worlds", Computer Graphics and Applications, vol.21, no.6, pp.64-70 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/38.963462M. PONDER, G. PAPAGIANNAKIS, T. MOLET, N. MAGNENAT-THALMANN, D. THALMANN, (2003) "VHD++ Development Framework: Towards Extendible, Component Based VR/AR Simulation Engine Featuring Advanced Virtual Character Technologies", IEEE Computer Society Press, CGI Proceedings, pp. 96-104 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/cgi.2003.1214453Archaeological Superintendence of Pompeii (2009), http://www.pompeiisites.orgG. PAPAGIANNAKIS, S. SCHERTENLEIB, B. O'KENNEDY , M. POIZAT, N.MAGNENAT-THALMANN, A. STODDART, D.THALMANN, (2005) "Mixing Virtual and Real scenes in the site of ancient Pompeii",Journal of CAVW, p 11-24, Volume 16, Issue 1, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, FebruaryEGGES, A., PAPAGIANNAKIS, G., MAGNENAT-THALMANN, N., (2007) "Presence and Interaction in Mixed Reality", The Visual Computer, Springer-Verlag Volume 23, Number 5, MaySEO H., MAGNENAT-THALMANN N. (2003), An Automatic Modeling of Human Bodies from Sizing Parameters. In ACM SIGGRAPH, Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics, pp19-26, pp234. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/641480.641487VOLINO P., MAGNENAT-THALMANN N. (2006), Resolving Surface Collisions through Intersection Contour Minimization. In ACM Transactions on Graphics (Siggraph 2006 proceedings), 25(3), pp 1154-1159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1179352.1142007http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1141911.1142007PAPAGIANNAKIS, G., SINGH, G., MAGNENAT-THALMANN, N., (2008) "A survey of mobile and wireless technologies for augmented reality systems", Journal of Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 19, 1, pp. 3-22, February http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cav.22

Augmented experiences in archeological sites: Presentation of Alexandria Troas Podium Temple to visitor experience

Set aside the issues concerning their excavation, documentation, and conservation, as far as their presentation to the public experience is concerned, Archaeological sites represent a special case of cultural heritage that come with distinctive set of conditions and demands, posing a problem situation deserving a special treatment. Problem is manifold: The presentation should be informative, entertaining, and educational, all accomplished through an active corporeal and mental participation where interactivity and immersion must be the key. The setting must provide a holistic, comprehensible experience by completing “missing parts and layers,” and contextualizing it, perhaps through a story, a theme, or a background. Any intervention must be non-invasive, reversible and updateable; alternatives and different layers must be presented, preferably, synchronously. Above all, final setting should be subordinate to the primacies of “conservation of cultural heritage,” while providing an intellectually and physically accessible and sustainable overall historical environment. This has been an age-old issue for the scholars, a genuine challenge due to the ill-defined nature of the problem situation itself. The present study departs from the proposition that, Augmented Reality(AR), by definition, has a potential to contribute to such a problem situation. AR is a combination of real and virtual worlds, where “virtual” could complement what was missing in the real and new objects and layers might be woven together, into one new reality where active bodily and mental participation and interaction is possible. Though it might seem implied in the definition, the proposition still needs a rigorous investigation since AR is a rapidly emerging but still quite a young field that has a long way to go; and since, research on AR’s specific adoption to presentation of archaeological sites, apart from few examples, is still an unbeaten path. The present multidisciplinary study aims to take a step towards such an investigation. Established upon a detailed investigation and analysis of examples, the present study involves development of an AR application of a selected case: “Alexandria Troas Podium Temple,” followed by a field study. In the present report, we share our experience and observations of the process and the implementation. In conclusion, we propose that AR is a serious candidate to be a considerable asset for the presentation of archaeological sites for the visitor experience, without compromising the universal norms of conservation of cultural heritage. We also argue that AR seems to have its own agenda, coming with unprecedented possibilities still to be appreciated and adopted, which in turn might help us to go beyond the conventional conceptions and modes of conservation of cultural heritage and presentation

Historic Costume Simulation and its Application

This study highlights the potential of new technology as a means to provide new possibility for costumes in fragile condition to be utilised. The aim of this study is to create accurate digital duplicates of costumes from historical sources, and to explore the possibility of developing them as an exhibitory and educational method applying 3D apparel CAD and new media. To achieve this, three attributes for qualities of effective digital costumes were suggested: faithful reproduction, virtual fabrication, and interactive and stereographic appreciation. Based on these qualities, digital costumes and a PC application were produced and evaluated

Monuments on the margins of Empire: the Antonine Wall sculptures

Monumental inscriptions recovered from along the line of the Antonine Wall are an exquisite body of evidence that provide invaluable insights into the Roman frontier. Referred to as Distance Stones, these sculptures are ripe for the testing of emerging non-destructive analytical techniques that cast new, and colourful, light onto sculptural reliefs. This work presents new dimensions that enhance our engagement with them and understanding of their material, cultural and strategic significance. Non-destructive technologies have had a transformative effect on the analysis and recreation of colours from the Classical world to the extent that ancient statuary can now be digitally and physically re-imagined in authentic polychromy. These techniques are particularly attractive for exploiting the latent research potential of museum collections since they ensure the integrity of the objects under study. Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) and Raman Spectrometry have been used to undertake in-situ analysis to identify and recreate the pigments that would have originally brought life to the Distance Stones

User curated augmented reality art exhibitions

Creating mobile augmented reality applications to display gallery artworks or museum content is a well-established concept within the research community. However, the focus of these systems is generally technologically driven and primarily addresses the end user and not the views of the gallery or the original artist. In this paper we present the design and development of the mobile application ?Taking the Artwork Home?, which allows people to digitally curate augmented reality art exhibitions in their own homes. A research through design methodology was adopted so that we could more fully understand how the views of the gallery and artists impacted on the artifact design and therefore the user experience

Trees as time capsules: extending airborne museum Hartenstein to the forest.

Battlefield museum "Airborne Museum Hartenstein" is housed in a villa which served as the head-quarters of the Allied Forces during World War II. Since heavy fighting took place in the surrounding forest, many of its trees have bullets hidden inside them. We propose an augmented reality (AR) application which superimposes X-rays of the trees upon their trunk, revealing their hidden content. Our approach suggests that augmented reality, when deployed as a means to visualize what is inaccessible to human vision, can be relevant to cultural heritage applications. We present a working prototype of our application and conclude with reflection and future possibilities

Populating Ancient Pompeii with Crowds of Virtual Romans

Pompeii was a Roman city, destroyed and completely buried during an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius. We have revived its past by creating a 3D model of its previous appearance and populated it with crowds of Virtual Romans. In this paper, we detail the process, based on archaeological data, to simulate ancient Pompeii life in real time. In a first step, an annotated city model is generated using procedural modelling. These annotations contain semantic data, such as land usage, building age, and window/door labels. In a second phase, the semantics are automatically interpreted to populate the scene and trigger special behaviors in the crowd, depending on the location of the characters. Finally, we describe the system pipeline, which allows for the simulation of thousands of Virtual Romans in real time