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Presence Examples Ancient Rome Comes To Virtual Life On 22-Foot Screen At UCLA From the web site of NBC4 (KNBC) in Los Angeles Three-Dimensional Model Enhances Historical Perspective January 27, 2003 LOS ANGELES -- Computer-savvy scholars at the University of California, Los Angeles have created a virtual reality version of the Roman Forum that allows viewers to wander the ancient complex. The scientifically authentic, three-dimensional model allows users to explore 22 of the temples, basilicas, columns, triumphal arches and other structures that crowded the Forum at the zenith of the Roman empire. Most now lie in ruins. The supercomputer-run simulation restores the buildings to virtual life when broadcast on a 22-foot, curved screen. During a demonstration given Monday, UCLA classicist Bernard Frischer narrated a virtual visit that included a stomach-churning flight under the arch of Septimius Severus, a stroll under a second-story colonnade in the Basilica Iulia and a fleeting peek inside the temple of the Vestal Virgins. "This isn't a Potemkin Village," said Frischer, referring to the faux villages erected to fool Catherine the Great on a visit to the Russian provinces. Absent from the model is the bright paint and riot of sculptures -- as well as the graffiti, noise, dirt and people -- that once filled the Forum. "You need an informed historical imagination to flesh out these models," Frischer said. The Forum is the largest and most complex of a group of computer models of cultural sites in England, Israel, Peru and Spain put together by UCLA's Cultural Virtual Reality Lab. It took five years and $500,000 to complete. The goal is to make the sites more real for scholars, students and tourists. The models can be manipulated to recreate how individual buildings coped with the weather, crowds, noise -- even earthquakes. A model of the Colosseum, for example, showed it probably took spectators longer to exit the ancient arena than previously thought -- despite the steep staircases engineers boasted could "vomit" the exiting crowds, Frischer said. To create the Forum model, the team used data culled from archaeological digs, historical photographs, renaissance etchings and images that adorned ancient coins. "We have to gather as much information as if we were actually building the structures," UCLA architectural historian Diane Favro said. The team hopes to create a Web version of the Forum in two to three years. Meanwhile, they continue to build out the model, tacking on more and more structures. Eventually, UCLA wants to recreate the entirety of imperial Rome as part of its Rome Reborn project. Like the city itself, the virtual version won't be built in a day. "It could take decades," Frischer said.
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