Adventurous tourism for couch potatoes

Abstract

Two tourist guides are described. One supports a virtual tour through an archaeological site, the other a tour through a real exhibition. The first system is based on the 3D reconstruction of the ancient city of Sagalassos. A virtual guide, represented by an animated mask can be given commands using natural speech. Through its expressions the mask makes clear whether the questions have been understood, whether they make sense, etc. Its presence largely increases the intuitiveness of the interface. This system is described only very concisely. A second system is a palmtop assistant that gives information about the paintings at the ongoing Van Dijck exhibition in the Antwerp museum of fine arts. The system consists of a handheld PC with camera and Ethernet radio link. Images are taken of paintings or details thereof. The images are analysed by a server, which sends back information about the particular painting or the details. It gives visitors more autonomy in deciding in which order to look at pieces and how much information is required about each. The system is based on image database retrieval, where interest points are characterised by geometric/photometric invariants of their neighbourhoods.