Virtual Re-opening of the Leaning Tower
by Claudio Bruno, Mario Fusani and Ovidio Salvetti
Available,
inexpensive technology can now transform worlds up-to-yesterday inaccessible
into comfortably explorable environments, ready to disclose to our senses
their most concealed features. While Jupiter's moons and Mars' landscape
mysteries show themselves by a gentle mouse click in our leaving-rooms,
other terrestrial, man-forged marvels no one can step on, are waiting for
the million-hit visiting contacts. In this domestic universe, still untargeted
by any mission, the leaning tower of Pisa is one silvery star which has
been chosen for exploration. Why?
The tower, one of the most popular and loved monuments in the world,
has been closed to visitors for seven years, due to structural instability,
while an international committee performs the delicate job of measuring,
designing, and enacting gradual strengthening. It will take years to see
the work finished.
For the moment, nobody can climb the tower. No-one can enjoy the column-framed
view of Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles) from the windows that
lighten the inner spiral stairs, struck by a strange, peculiar, wonderful
feeling that the entire outside world, including the horizon, has been
tilted. Every day, thousands of tourists can only gaze, nose upwards at
the 900 year old marble manufact.
The situation became no longer bearable for the technical and scientific
community working in Pisa, whose activity can be traced as back in time
as far as the age (and the inclination) of the tower. Some researchers
began to get interested in the idea of allowing tourists and scholars to
visit the monument again, without actually stepping on it.
The main goal of the Tower of Pisa Experience project is to set up a
virtual visit of the tower. And through this demonstrate that current technology
can allow many people to experience art and culture, even from a distance
or when there are physical impediments. Thus the tower has been taken as
a starting point for the exploration of other monuments and their multi-dimensional
environ-ments, in a projection which has no defined end.
This is not just virtual reality: Both immersion (that is, the transfer
of as much sensory information as our bandwidth and devices can allow between
the visitors and the object) and non-immersion (typical multimedia web
navigation) modes are peculiar features of the project.
The two basic visiting modes are conceived as follows.
The immersion mode consists of three main units:
- a robot with at least audio and video sensors, placed on top of the
tower, or within one of the columned rims
- a remote observation station, with VR apparatus and body markers/sensors
- a telecommunication system to transmit the visitor's movements to the
robot and, vice versa, images and sounds from the robot.
The non-immersion mode is implemented as a WWW site which offers on-line,
real-time pictures of the tower and its surroundings. A detailed 3D data
bank of the Piazza dei Miracoli is also available, so it is possible to
navigate through the sights of the square and also consult specialised
databases containing information on the art, history and architecture of
the monuments.
Figure 1: The tower is at the centre of a system of co-ordinate axes,
along which various dimensions of knowledge can be explored.
Figure 2: The cross point of the time-streams, represented by real-time,
framed images of the Leaning Tower and of the square.
Figure 3: From the square to its urban context. Drawings by Marco Tranquillini.
The basic idea is to place the tower at the centre of a system of co-ordinate
axes, along which various dimensions of knowledge can be explored. Time
and Space are the main guidelines (Fig. 1):
- Up The Future
- Down The Past
- Centre Right now!
- Around the Centre The surrounding area
Centre: This is the cross point of the time-streams, and is represented
by real-time, framed images of the Leaning Tower and of the square (Fig.
2)
Down: This is the starting point of the navigation through the 3D models
and databases which have been built in the past years
Up: Here it is possible to get information about works and projects
related to the future of the tower and the square (eg the work of the International
Commission)
Around: From the square to its urban context; a virtual tour exploring
the city where all these masterpieces have been created (Fig. 3).
Starting from this basic representation, further links will be provided
in order to access and interact with related information sources, such
as libraries, other monuments, cultural or local services. In the present
approach, the non-immersion mode also aims at describing both the technical
and the operational aspects of the immersion mode. We believe that in the
near future, following the progress in computer science and telecommunication,
both techniques can be integrated for use through Internet, so that the
virtual re-opening of the Leaning Tower can be fully accomplished. The
first virtual tour of the tower will soon be available under: http://www.iei.pi.cnr.it/projects/tower
Please contact:
Claudio Bruno - Polaris srl
Tel: +39 187 671213
E-mail: C.Bruno@towerpower.it
Mario Fusani - IEI-CNR
Tel: +39 50 593512
E-mail: fusani@iei.pi.cnr.it
Ovidio Salvetti - IEI-CNR
Tel: +39 50 593455
E-mail: salvetti@iei.pi.cnr.it
