Virtual Reality Modelling of Antarctic Heritage Sites

The Antarctic is a place which few people on Earth will ever visit, yet there are numerous natural and historical attractions there which capture the human imagination, making people want to learn more. Further, there is increasing pressure on a few highly-valued sites in the region with a resulting desire to preserve them, while at the same time increasing public knowledge and education. With this background, Antarctica is an ideal candidate for the kind of truly immersive, interactive virtual reality experience which is only now becoming possible outside of laboratories and military applications. Existing 'h.'irtual tours" of the Antarctic and elsewhere are, on the whole, very unsatisfying, providing frustrating stop-start glimpses of their subjects rather than allowing the user to explore them in a natural way. Good composition and content is not enough to make up for the limitations of the technology currently being employed. However, a decade or more of virtual reality research is giving rise to new technologies, still highly-priced and often under-finished, but now at least commercially available. High-end PCs are now delivering performance which was well out of reach only a few years ago when these software systems were originally being designed. This combination permits far richer, real-time photo-realistic experiences to be crafted and delivered to users of todays off-the-shelf systems. There is no single software product capable of composing and delivering every facet of such an experience. Careful combination of a number of tools can now provide the essential base on which intelligent planning and design can construct a result v,fich is qualitatively superior to all that has gone before: "it's almost like being there". The significant costs involved include data capture and processing, design and composition and software licensing. With delivery options ranging from dedicated "museum consoles" through to multimedia CDs, DVDs and Web sites, there are also potential revenue streams available to offset those costs. The Antarctic is a place which few people on Earth will ever visit, yet there are numerous natural and historical attractions there which capture the human imagination, making people want to learn more. Further, there is increasing pressure on a few highly-valued sites in the region with a resulting desire to preserve them, while at the same time increasing public knowledge and education. With this background, Antarctica is an ideal candidate for the kind of truly immersive, interactive virtual reality experience which is only now becoming possible outside of laboratories and military applications. Existing 'h.'irtual tours" of the Antarctic and elsewhere are, on the whole, very unsatisfying, providing frustrating stop-start glimpses of their subjects rather than allowing the user to explore them in a natural way. Good composition and content is not enough to make up for the limitations of the technology currently being employed. However, a decade or more of virtual reality research is giving rise to new technologies, still highly-priced and often under-finished, but now at least commercially available. High-end PCs are now delivering performance which was well out of reach only a few years ago when these software systems were originally being designed. This combination permits far richer, real-time photo-realistic experiences to be crafted and delivered to users of todays off-the-shelf systems. There is no single software product capable of composing and delivering every facet of such an experience. Careful combination of a number of tools can now provide the essential base on which intelligent planning and design can construct a result v,fich is qualitatively superior to all that has gone before: "it's almost like being there". The significant costs involved include data capture and processing, design and composition and software licensing. With delivery options ranging from dedicated "museum consoles" through to multimedia CDs, DVDs and Web sites, there are also potential revenue streams available to offset those costs