70 Billion Pixels Budapest: 360 degree panorama image
"The observation tower of János-hegy [the Elizabeth Lookout on János Hill is], the highest vantage point of Budapest with a 360 degree panorama, was an obvious location. It also allowed us to take on previous world records in both the 'highest definition image' and the 'largest spherical panorama' category. When contacted, the Council of District XII informed us on the upcoming anniversary of the tower. We agreed to cooperate in commemorating the September 2010 event by setting up new world records-give them our best shot if you please. ."
(360systems Ltd., 360world.eu)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Virtual Heritage: The Guns of Motutapu
"The largest virtual heritage project completed in NZ is the 20 minute 3D film 'The Guns of Motutapu'. It is a story about Motutapu Island and NZ's most important WWII gun battery at the time of an anticipated Japanese attack. As one of the largest 3D heritage projects of its type in the world, it features an intensely detailed simulation of a 6' MK21 counter bombardment battery firing into the Hauraki Gulf. One lucky aspect of the project is that Major Derek Thorburn, who came to Motutapu in 1942 and rose to become commander of the guns, acted as a technical advisor to the project. As an actual eye witness to the history, he worked with the 3D artists to achieve a level of visual accuracy that was in danger of being lost forever. The film has proven hugely effective as a fund raising tool for the Motutapu Restoration Trust and its efforts to restore the island. As a result of this success the trust again contracted with 4D Canvas and a second Motutapu film has just been released."
(Chris Keenan , 12.5.2006)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Rome Reborn 2.0
"Rome Reborn is an international initiative whose goal is the creation of 3D digital models illustrating the urban development of ancient Rome from the first settlement in the late Bronze Age (ca. 1000 B.C.) to the depopulation of the city in the early Middle Ages (ca. A.D. 550). With the advice of an international Scientific Advisory Committee, the leaders of the project decided that A.D. 320 was the best moment in time to begin the work of modelling.
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The primary purpose of this phase of the project was to spatialize and present information and theories about how the city looked at this moment in time, which was more or less the height of its development as the capital of the Roman Empire. A secondary, but important, goal was to create the cyberinfrastructure whereby the model could be updated, corrected, and augmented. Spatialization and presentation involve two related forms of communication: (1) the knowledge we have about the city has been used to reconstruct digitally how its topography, urban infrastructure (streets, bridges, aqueducts, walls, etc.), and individual buildings and monuments might have looked; and (2) whenever possible, the sources of archaeological information or speculative reasoning behind the digital reconstructions, as well as valuable online resources for understanding the sites of ancient Rome, have been made available to users. The model is thus a representation of the state of our knowledge (and, implicitly, of our ignorance) about the urban topography of ancient Rome at various periods of time. Beyond this primary use, the model can function in other ways. It can be used to teach students or the general public about how the city looked; it can be used to gather data not otherwise available, such as the alignment of built features in the city with respect to each other or to natural features and phenomena; and, it can be used to run urban or architectural experiments not otherwise possible, such as how well the city or the buildings within it functioned in terms of heating and ventilation, illumination, circulation of people, etc. Finally, a digital model can be easily updated to reflect corrections to the model or new archaeological discoveries."
(Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Centre of New Enlightenment at The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
"The Centre for New Enlightenment (TCoNE), was created to complement the aims of the restoration project to improve the emotional intellectual, aesthetic and physical access to the collections.
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The objective of The Centre of New Enlightenment (TCoNE) is to improve young visitors' confidence and help them find the hero inside themselves - to believe that they are not victims of circumstance, but architects of their own futures.
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The project was developed between 2004 and late 2007. During the pilot period in spring 2008 over two-thousand visitors were invited, with the Centre of New Enlightenment programme officially going live on Friday 19th Sep 2008. TCoNE is now fully open for school groups and visitors during school holidays. The Victorian ideal of the museum was one which transformed the lives of people, especially young people, through exposure to art, history and science The challenge to Kelvingrove was to create, in an empirically verifiable way, a programme which could realise this ideal, in the few hours of engagement involved in one or two visits together with incentives for subsequent self-led development.
The programme has two parts: firstly the museum experience comprising opening show; the tour and the end show; and secondly the TCoNE Community: further resources comprising mostly digital educational and support materials including an interactive CD ROM, and membership of an exclusive on-line community for all participants. A dedicated team of five museum professionals deliver the operation and development."
(Integrated Circles)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Hi-tech future for ancient Roman town
"The Virtual Museum of Archaeology (or MAV), which opened this summer [Northern Hemisphere], is based on the ancient Roman town of Herculaneum and is sited 100 metres from the ruins of the former settlement.
The creators of MAV aim to digitally reconstruct the destroyed town and recreate what life there was like.
The town was destroyed in 79 AD when the eruption of Mount Vesuvius encased it in scalding ash, killing those trying to flee, and preserving under 25m of debris some of the finest examples of private Roman villas.
'It is incredible coming to Herculaneum in the dark because your imagination fills in the gaps. Now a local museum is using digital technology to do just that,' said Walter Ferrara, the MAV's head curator.
Although MAV is near the actual site of Herculaneum it attempts to show it how it was not how it is now. "
(David Reid, BBC News, 12 September 2008)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
