VBP: Virtual Baptistery of Pisa

VBP, the Virtual Baptistery of Pisa, is a virtual reality prototype for cultural heritage presentation and communication. It combines education and entertainment methods to create a playful even though correct way to deliver artistic and cultural information. The virtual reality provides added values to the public with respect to the traditional media, as it lets group multimedia contents from various sources in a unique virtual environment. The visitor can see situations that he cannot see in a real visit - a reference to another monument, a cross section, architectural details that are too high up- and also situations that attract his attention and curiosity -lighting and acoustic effects, meet remotely connected visitors, ask questions to synthetic guides-. VBP presents a scenographic representation of the Baptistery of Pisa for interactive and distributed exploration. VBP contains the concepts of non linear intersecting storylines based on storytelling methods and techniques that can fits various levels of users. In addition it is a general framework for developing new stories, and for changing and adapting the ones already created. VBP requires an immersive stereo visualization system equipped with adequate audio and interaction devices. When the proper VR hardware is not available, it can run on the PC screen as well, though one looses immersion characteristics. The beta version has been released in 2003 while the final version has been planned at half 2005.