ARCHEOGUIDEAugmented Reality-based Cultural

Heritage On-site Guide

Dr. Ioannis T. Christou Dr. Renzo Carlucci

Project Consortium

Intracom S.A. (Greece) IGD (Germany) ZGDV (Germany) CCG (Portugal) A&C2000 (Italy) Post Reality (Greece) Hellenic Ministry of Culture (Greece)

ARCHEOGUIDE Objectives

To develop a virtual Guide to cultural heritage sites, that will provide personalized tours to the visitors according to their individual preferences, and provide virtual reconstruction of selected monuments through Augmented Reality techniques.

To develop a database of scientific information about such sites that is readily accessible to archeologists & scientists from remote locations through intranet/Internet.

What will it be like?

Visitor enters personal preferences, then proceeds to walk through a tour the system customizes for them.

Visitor arrives at a cultural heritage site; System Administrator provides a high-

tech “wearable computer”

lightweight portable computer Head Mounted Display (glasses,

earphone, speaker, camera) batteries etc.

Visitor “sees” reconstructed ancient monument placed where the ruins lie.

Visitor listens to the information the system provides, and may interact with the system: request more info or interrupt the info coming from the system.

How will it do it?

Augmented Reality is the branch of Virtual Reality that allows users to see and interact with graphical and audio virtual objects superimposed on the real world.

The system will present a customized tour to the visitors and adapt the presentation in real-time by learning from the visitors’ requests for more or less information what the tour should focus on. It will achieve this goal of personalized adaptive presentations through machine learning techniques.

Documentation of the site will take advantage of various standards (CIDOC) set by EU and other organizations for archeological and cultural heritage sites.

User Requirements

Methods used for capturing requirements Meetings with experts Questionnaires filled by site visitors (end-users) Sketch Use Cases Derive Requirements Iterate

Requirements Summary

Provide Personalized Tours (use machine learning for adapting tours to user profiles) while allowing user interaction.

Provide a multimedia database of material documenting the site following standards (CIDOC) and easy to use interfaces.

Minimize site disturbance caused by WLAN access points and artificial identifiable landmarks.

Minimize visitor disturbance by wearable computer weight etc. or software error response rates.

Application Scenarios

Provide a personalized guide for on-site visitors using augmented reality techniques.

Provide an off-site personalized guide (via Internet or CD-ROM).

Provide a database of scientific information about a site (cartography, documentation of each archeological object, references etc.) accessible remotely via Internet/intranet.

Technologies Used

Client/Server architecture: Wearable computer on client side, fast server, wireless LAN.

Position tracking: hybrid tracker: GPS tracking technology, inertia tracking,

compass tracking feeding vision based tracker seeking to identify well known (static) landmarks.

Rendering: VRML models, multimedia material. Occlusion handling of known static objects only.

Technologies Used (cont.)

Client (Mobile Unit): Wearable hardware: very fast processor for real time system

requirements, high speed & resolution video card, video camera & frame grabber, HMD, large local disk space, WLAN card.

Server: Multi-processor platform for low latency, very large storage

capacity, high speed WLAN card. Network: Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11)

Technologies Used (cont.)

Databases technologies: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology will

be used for registering the site topology to the DBMS: site cartography to be obtained through aerophotogrammetry, and GPS.

Object relational engine to support Object Oriented interfaces.

Overall System Architecture

Site Information Server

Portable Computer

WirelessInterface

PositionSensor

Mobile Unit

Browsing andContent Creation

Tool

Remote Access Interface

Superimposed Image

Database

WirelessNetwork

Detailed Component Diagram

Site Documentation

Personalized TourCreation & Modification

MM Object Creation,Classification & Modification

Automatic Tour Adaptation&Modification

Statistical Processing ofObject Classification

ServerPackage

ImageRendering

Audio & TextRendering

MM PresentationSynchronization

Position & OrientationTracking

UserInterfaces

Client DB Manager

Server DB Manager

MobileUnitPackage

Technologies Used (cont.)

Databases technologies: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology will

be used for registering the site topology to the DBMS: site cartography to be obtained through aerophotogrammetry, and GPS.

Object relational engine to support Object Oriented interfaces.

Pros & Cons of the System

Provide a totally new experience for visitors of cultural heritage sites. Attract more people (through

high technology) and educate them with scientifically correct tours available in a large number of languages.

Dramatically enhance monument readability.

Customization of tours ensures minimization of boredom or incomprehension.

Weight of wearable equipment might be bothersome for some people.

High-cost fragile equipment may require frequent service or replacement by careless users.

Current Status

Prepared project presentation document. Prepared dissemination & use plan. Performed survey of state of the art in:

related applications & projects related technologies

Gathered user requirements Specified application scenarios Designed overall architecture Submitted two papers, gave interviews, presented the project to conferences.

Future Work

In the upcoming months: Specify each individual component of the ARCHEOGUIDE

system. Begin prototype implementation of the system. Begin preparation of trials. Continue dissemination, define better market positioning, perform

quality control and co-ordination. Iterate