Virtual Visits and Archaeology

The increase in the number of tourists who visit fragile monuments endangers their preservation. In other cases, an interested person can't afford the long trip required to get to the place that she wants to see. Virtual archeology seems to be the solution to both problems, because the user can see the monument in the computer and walk in it without any kind of contact. Additionally, these virtual reconstructions allow the user to ask for information about the different elements she finds there. We will show three examples of this kind of applications, like the virtual visit to the Nefertari's tomb, which we rebuilt using plans and pictures. We will describe some of the computer graphics techniques we have used to develop them. Finally, we will talk about our current research area: the addition of avatars or agents to these environments to guide the visitor.