As I was posting the previous entry on guided tour technology, I was thinking that it was more than likely that someone had already developed this.
I was right. Not only has someone created a prototype of the kind of 3D-imaging, GPS-enabled, context-relevant goggles I wrote about, but they built it specifically for the city of Pompeii, which is where I had the original idea in the first place!
Apparently a few years ago, the EU commissioned a Geneva-based
research group called Miralab to develop the prototype for a tech-enabled visualization
tool for historic sites in Europe. Thus the project "Lifeplus" was created:
LIFEPLUS is an EU funded project that commenced in March 2002 and was
successfully completed in November 2004…
The goal of LIFEPLUS is to push the limits of current Augmented Reality
(AR) technologies, exploring the processes of narrative design of
fictional spaces (e.g. frescos-paintings) where users can experience a
high degree of realistic interactive immersion. Based on a
captured/real-time video of a real scene, the project is oriented in
enhancing these scenes by allowing the possibility to render realistic
3D simulations of virtual flora and fauna (humans, animals and plants)
in real-time. According to its key mobile AR technology, visitors are
provided with a see-through Head-Mounted-Display (HMD), earphone and
mobile computing equipment. A tracking system determines their location
within the site and audio-visual information is presented to them in
context with their exploration, superimposed on their current view of
the site.
Man, I wish I could try one of these out!
Meanwhile, another group based out of Basel, Switzerland called [plug.in] has created a more artistic, fanciful application of augmented reality goggles. Called the LifeClipper,
it is conceived of as an open air art project where the "boundaries
between subject and objective are blurred as the user is immersed into
space and action but also contemplates artistic compositions and
cultural reflections."
In a BBC story
from April 2005, you can watch a reporter trying out the LifeTripper
tech, which looks like quite the trippy experience, literally and
figuratively speaking.