1. ARCHEOGUIDE Augmented Reality-based Cultural Heritage On-site Guide
Dr. Ioannis T. Christou
Dr. Renzo Carlucci

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

3. 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.

4. What will it be like? 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 enters personal preferences, then proceeds to walk through a tour the system customizes for them.
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.

5. 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.

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

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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 )

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.

12. Overall System Architecture

13. Detailed Component Diagram

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. Current Status related applications & projects related technologies
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.

17. 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