f Cyber-archaeology and metaverse collaborative systems

The University of California, Merced and the University of California, Berkeley are developing an open source virtual collaborative system labelled tele-immersive archaeology which is able to involve different users/avatars in the 3D cyberspace at different levels of embodiment. The application is built upon Vrui VR Toolkit developed at UC Davis and tele-immersive technology developed at UC Berkeley. The visualization based on Vrui can run on various clients, from laptops to desktop servers, supporting different display technologies, from 2D to stereo. The framework also supports various input devices and trackers while providing integration and transmission of 3D video from stereo cameras, 2D video from webcams, and audio. This seamless integration (combined with proper display and capture technologies) provides users with immersive experience of the shared virtual environments. We started some tele-immersive experiments in archaeology using two different case studies: the reconstruction of a monumental tomb (replete with mural paintings) of the Western Han Dynasty (Xi'an, China) and the Mayan city of Copan (Honduras).

A possible evolution of the system will involve even the co-participation of multiple users from a metaverse, such as OpenSimulator or Open Cobalt. The creation of a hybrid 3D environment, tele-immersive-collaborative and Metaverse-co-participative will open up new perspectives in the analysis of the interpretative and communicative processes in archaeology.