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especially its immaterial aspects, we propose the whole to successively decompose
into its significant parts, thus augmenting the information about the context.
In the present approach an emphasis is placed on the importance of the context
(i.e. the “whole”), whose main role is to augment the information on the objects
and different human actions performed within it. Consequently, the research started
with the identification of the place of the archaeological contexts on the village site,
followed by a GPS survey with mobile phones and tablet PCs, and the positioning
of the referenced points on Google maps. This stage of defining a context using
the concept of Point of Interests (POIs) is a characteristic of the geo-based AR
applications and authoring of the AR browsers (Butchart
2011
). For a large number
of POIs this authoring stage can be performed online using Google's KML (Keyhole
Markup Language) file formats, which can be directly uploaded in AR platforms
like Wikitude,
3
to create so-called Wikitude worlds. We also experimented other
AR platforms which need a CMS (Content Management System) to automatically
perform this task and create the so-called AR-layers (Layar
4
)orAR-channels
(Junaio).
5
After this operation one of the contexts (i.e., a Chalcolithic village) was partially
built under the form of a series of wattle and daub dwellings inspired after the
architectural remains excavated, ethnographic sources, and the iconography of the
prehistoric architectural miniature ceramic objects (Gheorghiu
2010
). A total recon-
struction of the shape of the settlement surrounded by a ditch and a double palisade
was completed in VR. All the architectural features were modeled in Autodesk
3Dmax, with a high resolution of details. For creating a realistic atmosphere of the
settlements special attention was given to the nocturnal illumination and textures of
objects. A version of this model was designed with a lesser degree of complexity,
i.e., mesh-based, in order to be optimized for the use in restrictive environments
(e.g., transmission via mobile communications and rendering on mobile devices).
The augmentative mix of real objects and virtual reconstructions, like the one
created for Time Maps, is a method practiced in contemporary art (see Paul
2011
:
71ff). This particular case it is an application of the Augmented Reality (AR) and
Augmented Virtuality (AV) techniques. Both AR and VR belong to a real-virtual
continuum, as Milgram and Kishino (
1994
) defined it. While AR allows a real time
synchronized overlapping of virtual objects on a real image captured with a live
video camera, AV only performs an introduction of real information into a virtual
world.
Another difference is that AR represents a complex technical process (Azuma
1997
), necessitating 3D registration processes and collision detection because of the
synchronisation with reality, while AV could be more easily implemented through a
simple mixing process.
