IEEE Future Directions
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It would be nice to have a time machine a go back in the past. Rather than studying on history books live the life of our ancestors just for a day, walk along their trails like a ghost observing what goes (went) on.
Virtual reality technology is here to help. Bernard Fisher dreamt of recreating the imperial Rome back in the 70ies but technology was not good enough for that.
40 years after imagining the recreation of Rome, and 3 million $ later, with the help of Flyover Zone Productions Bernard have his own ancient Rome to walk in virtual reality (watch the clip).
Rome Reborn recreates the city as it was in 320 AD, at the time of emperor Costantine the great, a period on which we have very accurate information. It covers an area of 14 square km, showing the whole center of the city (but still missing some highlights as the Colosseum). The plan is to further extend it to cover all buildings and to allow for exploring in different ways (now you are taken on a virtual balloon hovering over the city).
It is not the only product leveraging on virtual reality to let people explore real places. FlyView360 let you fly over Paris, a 13 minute experience for just 15€, complete with a guide telling you where to look and what you see.
The Rome Reborn is an engaging experience for youngsters and it provides a lot of accurate historical information to the point that a professor at Austin University is planning to adopt it in his introductory course on ancient history.
Personally I feel it is a great thing to be transported back in time and I appreciate the enormous work that was needed to recreate Rome. At the same time it does not give me a real experience of walking in an ancient city. It is more like watching a movie, a nice one, but you are still a spectator and the whole seems fake.
Virtual reality is still virtual, it hasn’t crossed the thresholds of becoming, being perceived as, reality.
At the Future Direction Committee we have an initiative on Digital Reality, that has many points in common with the one I am leading on Symbiotic Autonomous Systems, that is looking into fostering the technologies to make virtual be perceived as real, but we are definitely not there, yet.
