UB Virtual Reality Laboratory

Summary
The purpose of this project is to document and publish a uniquely comprehensive report on the Northwest Palace of King Ashur-nasir-pal II (883-859 B.C.), preserved at Nimrud (ancient Assyria, today northeast Iraq), by bringing together, for the first time, all new, updated and extant materials and research using leading-edge computer graphics technologies, and to create a multimedia interactive educational and scholarly research tool with applications for colleges, universities, independent scholars, and museums.

	Site Reconstruction Archaeologists and researchers have published relief images and structural data since the 1970s. But it is difficult to integrate all the data at once, because a large number of ancient archaeological artifacts still belong to museums located around the world today. The advantages of VR for archaeology applications are: Preservation of Cultural Heritages Ancient Site Reconstruction Efficient Education/Research Tool 3D Palace Modeling Learning Sites Inc., one of the collaborators in this research, used images and information collected by Dr. Samuel Paley and others from documentary evidence (archaeological reports and museums records worldwide). From excavation data, the plan of the palace was prepared and digitally reconstructed in 3D with CAD. Images of relief were applied to the walls of the palace using texture mapping techniques. The Palace Model into 3D Interactive Virtual Environment The 3D palace was converted to virtual environment file formats(VRML and Open Inventor) and loaded in virtual reality space using C++/WTK/SGI Performer. This software makes the 3D virtual environment available, such as CAVE, ImmersaDESK, Stereographics, Trackers and WANDA. For More Details, visit UB Virtual Site Museum Web Site.

Real-time 3D Animation
It is essential for VR-Archaeology applications to have detailed representations of the garments and ornaments of all ancient figures. The 3D model of the king was implemented using a mixed model of polygons and NURBS technique.

UB Virtual Site Museum Pictures
All the technical entities are integrated for a virtual museum in 3D Real-time Virtual Space.

UB Virtual Site Museum Videos
Realtime Videos: to be updated

Project Director
Dr. T. Kesavadas (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering)

Archaeological Director
Dr. Samuel M. Paley (Dept. of Classics)

VR & Real-time Animation
Youngseok Kim (Dept. of Mechanical Engineering)
Parijat Bhide

Palace Modeling
Dr. Donald Sanders (Learning Site Inc.)

Link
UB Virtual Site Museum

Acknowledgements
IDESK at CCR | CAVE at NYSCEDII

Publications
[1] Kim, Y., Kesavadas, T. & Paley, S. M. "The UBVSM: Real-time Interactive Museum for the Northwest Palace in Iraq" Proceedings of Virtual Systems and MultiMedia; VSMM 2003 (pp. 54-61). Montreal, Canada: IEEE Computer Society.

[2] Kim, Y., Kesavadas, T., Paley, S. M. & Sanders, D. H. (2001). "Real-time animation of king Ashur-nasir-pal II (883-859BC) in the virtual recreated Northwest Palace." Proceedings of Virtual Systems and MultiMedia; VSMM2001 (pp. 128-136). University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, Oct 25-27, 2001: IEEE Computer Society.

[3] Kim, Y. "A Real-Time Immersive Virtual Environment for an Archaeological Site: The Northwest Palace of Ashur-nasir-pal II (883-859 B.C.)." Master’s thesis, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, September 2001, The State University of New York.