The remains of Pompeii’s ancient villas show that the Romans decorated their villas with extravagant wall paintings of theatre scenes that used tricks of perspective to impress guests with what seemed at the time an early version of virtual reality. Now, researchers at the University of Warwick are transforming these ancient forms of perspective painting into the 21st century version of virtual reality using 3-D digital models that allow viewers to tread the boards of long-lost Roman theatres.
You may have caught this story at the BBC, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3044421.stm) but there's a fair amount more about it on the web.
Press Release from Warwick:
http://www.newsandevents.warwick.ac.uk/index.cfm?page=pressrelease&id=1051
The e-Lab that created it:
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/3d/
...and who made this large but still rather nice reconstruction:
http://warwickadmin.bit10.net/media/wallpainting01d%20copy.jpg
It also appears on Reuters "Research TV" website at
http://www.research-tv.com/theatron_story_template.html
despite what the site may say, it appears to work with Opera as well as Internet Explorer, but you will need Windows Media Player to view the video, and a sound card to hear it.
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