Jun

22

Rome In 3-D

Posted by maureen

June 22, 2007 |

I’ve vacation in Rome and loved every minute of my visit. There’s so much to see and so much history behind all those beautiful ancient buildings. But have you ever wondered how this much visited city would look if we were able to view a simulated three-dimensional computer model of it? Well, now we can thanks to Rome Reborn, the world’s biggest computer simulation of an ancient city and brainchild of the University of Virginia’s Bernard Frischer.The model is reproduced for tourists on satellite-guided handsets and 3-D orientation movies in a theater to be opened near the Colosseum

Rome Reborn was created over a ten year period from the efforts of Gabriele Guidi, a professor at the Politecnico di Milano and an international group of archaeologists, architects and computer specialists. They used laser scanners to take millions of measurements of the Plastico di Roma antica, a 40 -foot by 60 foot plaster model of the city on display at the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome, to create the ancient city in A.D 320.
The team digitally rebuilt 7,000 structures that existed within the city’s 50-square mile, based on centuries of documented research. Rome Reborn actually allows you to explore streets and buildings and so can bring to life the city in a way that was previously impossible.

What really fascinates me is that as a virtual traveler, using the arrow keys on the computer, you can explore the streets of Rome and even enter places such as the Colosseum and imagine it filled with spectators waiting for the next event. They have even recreated the interior and exterior details such as the windows, doors , relief’s and frescoes in 30 buildings where they had enough supporting documentations .You can get additional information by placing the cursor over a building of interest and bringing up the dialogue box. The window displays Google Earth with the exact coordinates of the virtual building and provides links to online documents about the building.
The developers hope that eventually it will be part of an online journal that publishes articles documenting information about how ancient buildings looked.

Fascinating stuff and I think that Gladiator over there is actually Russell Crowe!


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. University Update - Google - Rome In 3-D on June 22, 2007 8:02 am

    […] Link to Article google Rome In 3-D » Posted at Empty Nest on Friday, June 22, 2007 Rome In […]

  2. gmack on June 23, 2007 9:23 am

    strength and honor

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