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iTACITUS - Intelligent Tourism and Cultural Information through Ubiquitous Services |
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Itacitus is a European research project funded under the Sixth Framework Programme for information society technologies. iTacitus aims explore ways in which information technology can be employed to encourage cultural tourism. 
Augmented reality.
Cultural heritage sites have huge amounts of information. However it can be difficult to present this information in a compelling way. iTacitus will explore ways of using augmented reality to provide compelling experiences at cultural heritage sites. For example
- Superimposed Environments: 3D objects are placed into the scene on the spot in order to overlay the real scene. Like missing paintings, statues or architecture models.
- Annotated Landscape: Abstract context sensitive information overlays showing images, texts and videos about a certain spot.
- Spatial Acoustic Overlays: Transporting a place's original ambience by virtually placing spatial audio clips in the surroundings.
Itinerary planning
Being a tourist can sometimes be hard work. With a huge choice of things to do it can be challenging even deciding what you want to do even before you consider practical problems like transport, costs and opening times. iTacitus aims to develop an interactive itinerary planning tool where the process is enjoyable rather than overwhelming since mundane issues like travel and finding things which match your interests are handled by the system automatically. In this way we hope to encourage tourists to explore more and visit attractions which are off the beaten track.
Contextual information.
Have you ever had time to fill wanted to find out what there is to do within 20 minutes of your location?
Have you ever you passed a ruin and wondered what it looked like when it was in use, who used the building, did anything of significance happen there?
iTACITUS wishes to capitalise on this curiosity to ensure that the person has access to that information there and then, so that they get the required information before the flicker of curiosity goes out. We aim to explore ways of delivering contextual information (users location, interests and history) to the visitors mobile device. 
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Fraunhofer IGD showed an iTACITUS-based application in cooperation with Rome Reborn at SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles. The mobile application overlayed 3D models of roman monuments on floor-maps and posters at the booth in real time.  
See a video of the installation at Youtube!
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TXT presented a paper about the Progress Module used in iTacitus at the “EVA 2008" conference in Wien, Austria on Tuesday , 26 August 2008. The title of the paper is "Integrating Agent and Wireless Technologies for Location-based Services in Cultural Heritage", authors are Maurizio Megliola and Luca Barbieri.
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We will be presenting iTacitus at “The Agenda for a sustainable and competitive European tourism” and centralised EU financial instruments supporting tourism in Portorož, Slovenia on Tuesday, 10 June 2008. |
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We have submitted a paper to the eChallenges conference in Stockholm in October. Here is an abstract of the paper: *Abstract: *Because of the difficulties in navigating public transport networks and finding out about available activities, cultural tourists tend to follow a pre-planned itinerary and to visit a fairly small set of well known attractions. An analogous situation emerges at the cultural heritage sites themselves: while cultural heritage sites typically have a large amount of archive material, only a small amount of information can be presented, therefore visitors tend not to explore the cultural significance of exhibits in depth. Our solution represents a complete mobile information system for travellers intended to encourage exploration. The system consists of three modules: firstly location-based information intended to enhance the cultural tourists understanding and to suggest exploratory activities based on modelling the users interests; secondly ad-hoc itinerary planning functionality to give the user the confidence to explore and a novel augmented reality system for presenting information in a user friendly way using markerless tracking. This paper covers the research and development aspects of iTACITUS, a sixth framework programme project, reporting on both technical and coordination issues, as well as interaction issues encountered during the project trials. |
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TACITUS Mobile Augmented Reality at Kiosk Europe Expo 2008 Fraunhofer IGD presented iTACITUS Mobile Augmented Reality at the Future Parlour of Kiosk Europe Expo 2008. |
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Fraunhofer IGD tested their markerless tracking for the Augmented Reality module at the iTACITUS test site Reggia Venaria Reale near Turin in Italy. Three locations at the site were selected for the user-tests in july: The yard in front of the main building, Sale Diana inside the main building and Tempio Diana in the garden.
Each location will feature virtual overlays showing their original condition. Only original historic content like drawings and paintings will be used for the augmentation. Therefor IDG developed a reality filter for rendering the environment like a real time drawing.
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To see the HCC leaflet click here: HCCleaflet
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A paper abstract has been submitted for the workshop session "Integrated strategies for intelligent e-tourism and e-heritage environments" during the eChallenge 2008 event with title:
"Encouraging cultural exploration: a dynamic tour guide based on personalised contextual information and ad-hoc planning".
To see the abstract click here: encouragingCulturalExploration.pdf |
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In order to evaluate the project's applications we have chosen two Cultural Heritage sites that will use iTACITUS software: Winchester Castle in Hampshire County, Great Britain and Reggia Venaria Viale near Turin in Italy.
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The iTACITUS' Augmented Reality Module has been presented at EPOCH's (European Network of Excellence in Open Cultural Heritage) [http://www.epoch-net.org] final review event in Rome. The application showed the virtual reconstruction of the archeaological site of Sagalassos in Turkey [http://www.esat.kuleuven.be/sagalassos]. Several hotspots in the area told the story about a temple by touching them. The application introduced a new texture tracking system for iTACITUS. It now features auto calibration, robust and fast tracking and limited translation. This new system will be used at iTACITUS' test site Reggia Venaria Reale in Turin during the next months.
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We have a viewlet showing the running of the JADE multi-agent system at the basis of the Progress Module.
There are a few explanations inside the video.
Click the image to see the video:  |
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We'll present iTACITUS at the arteq conference [http://www.arteqsummit.com/]. Click here to see the agenda where itacitus is listed is in: artec_program |
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Reggia of Venaria has been selected as the trial site for Turin. This is royal palace has only recently been opened to the public and we are excited to be working with them to explore exciting new ways of providing information to visitors. At Winchester we shall trial the prototype at the Great Hall, a fine 13th century hall containing the 'The Round Table of King Arthur' as well as the Castle Avenue and Military museums area . |
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We will be publishing a Project Paper:"iTACITUS – Novel Interaction and Tracking Paradigms for Mobile AR"
Michael Zoellner, Dr. Didier Stricker, Gabi Bleser, Yulian Pastarmov Fraunhofer IGD, Germany at the VAST "Future technologies to empower heritage professionals" 26th - 30th November in Brighton Conference by Eurographics and EPOCH (European Research Network of Excellence in Open Cultural Heritage http://www.epoch-net.org)
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Itacitus partners can find a beta of the authoring tool here . We will soon be inviting you to enter details about your cultural heritage site and any special events you are holding. Please login and give us your comments on the site so that we can improve it.
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