Rivers of lava accompanied by a column of gas and ash and a rain of red-hot lava that seem to break through the viewer: the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD becomes virtual, and you can live in a 3D theater to be built at the Archaeological Museum Virtual Herculaneum (Mav).
The installation "will be built by 2011, will be based on the story that made the Pliny the Younger of the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia, and will be the first example of a Virtual Theater made in Italy, or a projection system immersive 3D up to 360 degrees, "says John Caturano, CEO of the company that will implement the project, the SpinVector.
The immersive virtual reality is a technology that can create a sense of absorption''and''sensory immersion in an environment with three-dimensional images that seem to come from the screen and enter the environment where the viewer is located. In the reproduction of the eruption of Vesuvius''you will not see images of death - continues Caturano - but we will focus on the natural phenomenon. We are also creating a vibrating platform that simulates earthquakes that were once the eruption.'' The technology of the Virtual Theater, Caturano stresses, can also be used for interactive content,''like a giant game of exceptional quality and can be for entertainment and disclosure, but it can also be connected to monitoring systems for security applications or remote control.''
The Virtual Theater can be realized in different versions, adds Caturano, but in general we can say that is a special or cylindrical curved screen on which images come from multiple projectors. To feel immersed in the scene and part of the experience projected visitors, who are at the center of the cylinder, will have to wear 3D glasses. Core technology is the '3D engine', produced by the software that displays the entire computer graphics in real time, runs the projectors, and also synchronizes them overlap and blend the images from different projectors restoring the effect of a 'one great scene.
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