Roman Middlewich – Virtual Reality

Archaeologist & Presenter James Balme was recently commissioned to write & produce the latest documentary for the 2007 Middlewich Roman Festival. James has written and produced three documentaries previously for Middlewich and it’s well known festivals. This virtual reality film was written and produced by Take27 in 2003 for Middlewich Town Council and Gifford and Partners to celebrate the Roman festival of that year. It has recently been updated with a voice-over by eminent archaeologist Tim Strickland MBE.

The Internet Culture in Virtual Reality by Castells

As a tool of communication and technology sharing, the Internet has become a powerful force that is difficult to control. According to Castells the Internet has become the center for libertarian values of privacy, freedom, and openness. Castells believes that the interaction between four types of cultures resulted in this: the ‘techno-meritocratic’ culture, the ‘hacker ethic’, the ‘virtual communitarians’, and the entrepreneurs. The author believes that with time the flexibility of the Internet will be used in commercial interests to change the culture of openness of the Internet into the culture of control.

Castells in the chapter “Virtual Communities or Network Society” reflects on how the internet has changed the way people communicate with each other. The author speaks about how most people’s social interactions increase, rather than decrease, which is the general opinion of the internet. A major criticism against the communication through the Internet is that there is little time for communication in a real time. According to Castells’ studies this fact is wrong and he rejects it. Then the author mentions such a notion as ‘networked individualism’. This means that people build their networks on their own interest. In other words, the author points out that nowadays the society is no longer organized according to the geographical location but on the choice that a person makes via the Internet.

Castells reflects on the connection between the iIternet and the government, on civil society, democracy in the society in the chapter “The Politics of the Internet: Computer Networks, Civil Society, and the State”. The author brings up such aspect of the relation between government and the Internet as China. In this chapter he tells about a new version of the search engine made specially for China by Google. Besides, the chapter discusses the role of the government in the aspect of absolute freedom in communication.

When developed countries with technological infrastructures were joining the internet, developing countries began to experience a Digital divide separating them from the Internet. China went on to make its first global Internet connection in 1994, between the Beijing Electro-Spectrometer Collaboration and Stanford University’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In the chapter “The Digital Divide in a Global Perspective” Castells gives a detailed analysis of the usage of the Internet all over the world. Then the author examines the connection of the digital divide and the Internet. According to Castells’ research, connectivity is an obligatory element of economic development and the netiquette is the code of effective communication via the Internet.

Virtual Reality Experience in Rome

ZHANG: Tourists visiting ancient Rome will soon be able to totally immerse themselves in the daily life of the city. A new high-tech 3-D theatre will soon open allowing visitors to become virtual actors in history. STORY: For most tourists the ancient Roman ruins of the Colosseum and the Forum don’t reveal much about life in those days. Now a new high-tech show will provide for the first time a 3-D sense of what life was like for plebeians and gladiators in ancient Rome. “3D Rewind Rome” sucks the visitor back in time to 310 AD, the reign of Emperor Maxentius.Joel Myers is the managing director of the hi-tech entertainment firm Virtuality. [Joel Myers, Managing Director]: “When the audience comes and watches the show they get a really immersive feeling of how it was like to be in ancient Rome as if you were an actor on the stage of history. We have 3-D technology based on animation.” Sapientus a tubby, balding, toga-clad 3-D Roman guides the traveler through a detailed virtual model of the city. The 3-D effects dramatically and realistically portray gladiatorial scenes in the Colosseum. Trumpets and screaming fans bring the show to a climax when the audience demands a thumbs-up or thumbs-down from the Emperor. Olivia Menaguale is an art historian for the project. [Olivia Menaguale, Art Historian]: “So what we are trying to do is we are trying to reveal not only the monuments but the life that was taking place in them” Smoke, grime, graffiti and street scenes involving …

Playing Online Sports Games in Virtual Reality

Sports games involve high quality 3D graphics and high-speed animation and special effects that allow users to play such games as soccer, baseball, snooker, and other games on computers and on the internet. The advances in software and graphics technology have made software renditions of such games next to real and fun.

Before the rise of software and computer technology, few would have imagined playing baseball in virtual reality or on computers. These were games to be played outdoors, in lush green parks, or on the street. Now we can play them on monitor screens in one’s bedroom, or online with other players.

Some of the games that are popular today include the following:

Billiards – A combination of letter keys and the mouse allow the player to aim and shoot with high precision. The rules remain the same, and the visual effects are 3-dimensional.

Bowling – A number of customizable ball, 3 alleys, and near-realistic ball and pin movements make this club game come alive in your drawing room.

Tennis – A 3 set tennis match against the computer allows amateurs to try their hands with this game. The players and the strength of the hits are controlled by combining mouse dragging and a few keys.

Snow Boarding – An obstacle filled race that gives more points the earlier you finish. The controls as usual are with the mouse and keyboard. You get the choice of listening to background music as well.

Most of the virtual games are a test of one’s hand-to-eye coordination. It is a skill that comes with practice. The levels of the games differ and the usual options available are beginners, intermediate and advanced. Since the games are played against a computer software, the level of difficulty in limited by the quality of programming.

To learn more about playing online sports games, visit online sports games

Augmented Reality ? Virtual Reality that?s Real Today

This is not virtual reality which is 100% simulated environment and characters. But it’s close and more useful in the real world.  If you’ve watched any of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator movies where they show what the terminator sees from his perspective (displaying data while looking at a person or object) that’s the general idea of what AR is.  

As you look at a building or object through a sensitized pair of goggles, you get real time information related to what you are looking at. It could be a street or a landmark and your goggle displays information about it and your location using GPS navigation. Or you could look at an artifact in a museum and get information readout on your goggles.  

Changing the Way We Look at Things and People

AR straddles somewhere between the immersive computer-generated graphics that have high realism on one end of the spectrum and the real world at the other end. Superimposing graphics, images and information as needed over real images we see through cameras constitutes Augmented Reality. Just like Virtual Reality, you need a pair of Goggles or heads-up display screens in a helmet that are transparent enough for you to see normally through them.  

But the glass surface is actually an LCD screen that can display information depending on what you are looking at. You could be looking at a person and your goggle shows you some information about the person taken from a social networking site or remote database.  CIA and FBI operatives would love this. You could look at a landmark and you get information about it and your exact location from GPS data.  Tourists would be delighted with this. You could look at a car and the goggle display technical data about it.  Car aficionados and prospective buyers would like that as well.  

Games and More Games

Video games have been with us for almost 40 years now and they’ve grown to be sophisticated right down to your portable mobile gaming handsets and mobile phones. There are already games using AR technology in mobile phones with even the most rudimentary imaging system or camera.  Set the camera against a table and you see characters walking or battling it out on the table from your screen. Some use printed surfaces in books which the AR application on your handset can detect and display images accordingly.  This gaming technique saves the application some computing time to render 2D polygons for backgrounds and thus minimize file sizes.  

Military Application

The military already has projects in AR. The concept is about providing troops with instant information about their target surroundings in real time. This includes displaying on their goggles exact enemy locations that would otherwise be hidden from view without it. It can show egress points when entering structures, something like an X-ray vision or night vision. AR can assist them to skirt through mines and booby trapped locations.  

What is Needed

Goggles that display the information superimposed on what you see through them as well as mobile phone screens set in camera mode are prerequisites to the AR technology.  The intelligence could be in the mobile phone or a belt-strapped device that can communicate with remote databases through WiFi. The goggles can eventually evolve into simple eyeglasses. AR is still in its infancy but the promise is there alright.  GP