Cyber-Archaeology

Duration: 2010-now
Collaborators: Prof. Maurizio Forte, University of California, Merced
Funding: CITRIS Seed Grant 2010
Researchers: Gregorij Kurillo (UCB), Donny Ward (UCM), Maurizio Forte (UCM)
Project Website: TeleArch

Description:
At the cutting edge of research, 3D laser scanning, remote sensing, global positioning systems (GPS) and geographic information systems (GIS), photogrammetry, and computer modeling have been used to collect and document data on significant cultural heritage sites. Virtual reconstructions integrate the complex layers of archaeological, historical, and cultural data and provide the tools for scholars to visualize, analyze, and test hypotheses on the data.

Since 2010 we have been in collaboration with Prof. Forte of UC Merced developing a collaborative application for digital archaeology. The application features distributed scene graph which is built on top of the collaborative Vrui framework, developed by UC Davis. The scene graph is managed off the central server which sends clients scene graph changes, 3D position of all users, and video and audio data for communication. This server-based model allows for synchronized interaction in the virtual environment. The software allows for visualization of different 3D objects (in wavefront format) in combination with GIS data.

The research questions we are interested in include the following: How do people interact with virtual characters and virtual humans, and how does this affect learning in a virtual environment? Is attention sustained and memory more robust for information about virtual historic objects (e.g., function of object, location of object) when virtual characters point at objects while they describe the objects? How will users as avatars grasp and manipulate virtual objects, and what are the cognitive benefits of this type of interaction? Two crucial aspects regard the role of “awareness” and “imitation”.

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