Aug 16, 2008

MellaniuM: Virtual Reality, History, and Digital Heritage

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Joe Rigby, from MellaniuM, focuses on the use of interactive virtual reality technology to create environments that support the learning of history. This concept is also known as "Digital Heritage". Applications are in the works that combine high-polygon modeling with scaled photo-realistic textures, incorporating multi-user avatar interaction within 3D archaeological visualizations.

MellaniuM will be presenting at VSMM' 08: Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia Dedicated to Digital Heritage. Instead of a PowerPoint presentation, participants will be provided with a walk-through of the Theatre of Pompeii.

A future workshop, sponsored by ADSIP, the Applied Digital Signal and Image Processing Research Centre, will feature an EONREALITY multi-wall immersive system to display the latest version of the Theatre of Pompeii district.
Public VR and Anne Weis ,from the Department of Art History at the University of Pittsburgh, are collaborating on this project.

The original Pompeii Project, was built at Carnegie Mellon's Studio for Creative Inquiry, during the mid-1990's. Links to the Virtual Theater District (VMRL) and 3D models can be found at http://artscool.cfa.cmu.edu:16080/~hemef/pompeii/project.html

If you have an interactive whiteboard, download the 3D models of Pompeii. You'll have to install a free VRML plug-in in order to view them on a web browser.

Wouldn't it be great if all students could learn about history via interactive virtual reality someday?



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes it would be great if all students could learn not just history but science, mathematics, biology, etc., and be able to repeat the standardized courses as many times as they want. Students will then be resposible for their education.

Joe Rigby said...

Lynn, The link to VSMM 2008 is http://www.vsmm2008.org/ and we have actually imported the KVL Kings Visualisation Lab's "Theatre of Pompey" as one of our showcase environments. However we must thank you for the lead to the existing "Theatre at Pompeii" which we have now downloaded and will render in the UNREAL platform when time and scheduling permits.

Joe Rigby said...

Hi Lynn, You can actually go and explore a model of the Titanic now in web.alive. Its a web embedded 3D virtual environment (PC only sorry)at http://ec3v3.projectchainsaw.com
review at http://rezzable.com/blog/joe-rigby/mellanium-brings-unreal-engine-power-browser-nortels-webalive-virtual-world