| Aim
The core objective of this project is to develop
and validate an ambient information environment "AVATON", which
will allow for interactive navigation within the combined physical-geographical
and informational space of the Aegean Volcanic Arc, and act as the
individual visitor's guide and apprentice. AVATON will provide an
"ambient" information landscape in more than on senses of the
word:
1. It will be available to people through a multitude
of channels and interfaces, namely:
- an interactive Internet application
which will be accessed through a web browser from anywhere on
the Internet,
- a PDA-based informational resource,
able to provide location-sensitive access to the provided functionalities
of the system in non-obstructive ways,
- a digital TV programme offered both
as a satellite TV feed and a Web-casted video-feed in real time.
2. AVATON will provide the means for an interplay
between the physical space and its related informational space,
with the visitor mediating the process in-between. More specifically,
AVATON, through the use of handheld devices equipped with GPS receivers,
will:
- let visitors browse geocoded content,
that is, content related to the place they are in or the exhibit
they are close to, but also
- allow the "reation" of personalized
content by visitors (e.g. a note expressing the feelings of the
moment, a piece of scientific evidence, or a picture taken as
a memory of the visit) in a way that this content becomes "part
of" the place or exhibit. Future visitors (either on-site
visitors or cyber-visitors) will find this information "tied"
to the places or objects of interest, and browse it, comment it,
and so on.
In that way, places or objects of interest will be
augmented with visitors personal annotations or other information
(a kind of "virtual guest book"), which will provide them
with a unique feature of social memory and historical perspective,
a sense of "lifetime story" that can be narrated to new
visitors.
The Aegean Volcanic Arc is an ideal region for the development and utilization
of the proposed application, as it combines a unique natural and geological
landscape (such as the Santorini Caldera, the fossilized forest of Lesvos,
and the volcano of Nisyros) with a wealth of historical and cultural
elements that attract thousands of tourists annually.
These two elements form a
series of cultural landscapes and geo-sites that mirror the evolution
and intermingle of cultural and natural elements. The project, apart
from the technological aspect, will provide the methodology for
similar interdisciplinary application that combines cultural and
natural information with new technologies.
|
