Heritage and Mapping
Virtual Romans
The aim of this project is to investigate aspects of life in Roman Leicester
(Ratae Corieltauvorum) by creating highly accurate digital models of the known
buildings and many artefacts, then populating the resulting town with virtual
'Romans' who will live out their 'lives' in this environment.These virtual characters
will be programmed as fully as possible with all the social, cultural and environmental
factors that would have influenced the lives of the actual people of the period
(roughly 1st to 4th centuries A.D.).
A further game-like element will be provided by the possibility of users entering virtual Roman Leicester to observe, trade and interact. This is a collaborative project between De Montfort University, the University of Leicester, and Leicester City Council. The partners comprise:
- Prof Andrew Hugill (project leader, Institute Of Creative Technologies, De Montfort University)
- Prof David Mattingly (School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester)
- Dr Doug Cawthorne (Radford Group for Architectural Research, De Montfort University)
- Dr Mario Gongora (Centre for Computational Intelligence, De Montfort University)
- Mr Nicholas Higgett (Faculty of Art and Design, De Montfort University)
- Mr Richard Buckley (University of Leicester Archaeological Services)
- Ms Sarah Levitt (Leicester Arts and Museums Service, Leicester City Council)
- Dr Eric Tatham (Augmented Reality Ltd. and De Montfort University)
There are currently one research assistant (Mr George Watson) and two PhD researchers (Mr David Irvine, Mr Gerardo Saucedo) working on the project.
The project advisors include Dr Hugh Denard (Kings Visualisation Lab) and Dr Sofia Pescarin (Virtual Heritage Lab) and we are a signatory of the London Charter for Virtual Heritage Research.
Project Update (19.11.09)
The exhibition of the virtual model at Phoenix Square has attracted much media attention. See the local news feature at http://bit.ly/19hnh and the extensive coverage in the Leicester Mercury
The first interactive model of Roman Leicester is to be publicly exhibited at Phoenix Square from its launch (November 19th 2009) until Christmas.
Preliminary work on the buildings of Roman Leicester has been undertaken by the Radford Group and Mr Watson, as documented on the blog at http://romanleicester.blogspot.com/
Research into the artificial intelligence aspects has been started by Mr Irvine. See his blog.
A link has been established with Musica Romana in relation to the music.
Research into Roman board games and Maglus, the local deity, are informing work on augmented reality devices.
For further information please contact:Prof Andrew Hugill
Email: ahu [at] dmu.ac.uk