Teaching with Immersive Virtual Archaeology

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Teaching with Immersive Virtual Archaeology
Brian M. Slator, Jeffrey T. Clark, James Landrum
III, Aaron Bergstrom, Justin Hawley, Eunice
Johnston, and Shawn Fisher Departments of
Computer Science, Sociology/Anthropology,
English North Dakota State University Fargo, ND
58105 Contact slator_at_cs.ndsu.edu
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Virtual Archaeologist
An immersive multi-user 3D virtual environment
that faithfully reproduces an archeological
site, Fort Berthold/Like-A-Fishhook Village
(FB/LF), which supports

1. exploration of a spatially oriented, authentic
   virtual world
2. practical, field-based decision making
3. critical thinking for scientific problem solving
4. and time-travel

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Immersive Virtual Environments

• Simulated environment using LambdaMOO
  (enCore version 3.0, UT Dallas, Haynes
  Holmevik)
• Multiple interface(s) to the SAME simulation
• Hosted on the internet, browser accessible
• Multi-user, embedded objects, spatial navigation
• Implemented support for story points (for
  embedded historical and/or fictional narrative)
• Support humanities student writing project

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Like-A-Fishhook Time Line
1839
1845
1862
1890
1930
1950
2001
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Like-A-Fishhook MOO
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Like-A-Fishhook MOO
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Like-A-Fishhook MOO
http//lions.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu4445/
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Playing the Archaeology Game

1. Premise site about to be lost
2. Students given authentic tools, resources, and
   Goals
3. Role-based learning of procedure- to act like
   and think like an archaeologist

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Time-Travel
1954 Excavation
1851 Village
Visualizing archaeology in virtual contexts
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Project Resources

• archaeological reports
• historical documents
• field notes
• archaeological artifacts
• maps
• photographs
• audio recordings
• video/film

State Historical Society of North
Dakota http//www.state.nd.us/hist/
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Project Resources
Excavation Photos
Excavators removing soil to reveal structure,
remains and artifacts.
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Project Resources
Aerial Photos
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Project Resources
1870 site photos
Arikara ceremonial lodge.
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Project Resources
Excavation Maps
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3D Models/Renderings
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3D Models/Renderings
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3D Models/Renderings
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Project Resources
3D Laser Scanning of Archaeological Artifacts
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Digital Archive Network For Anthropology
Project Co-PIs

• Dr. Jeffrey T. Clark
• Dr. Brian Slator
• Dr. William Perrizo

• DANA is intended to be a cross-platform
  information retrieval system for web-based
  multimedia utilized in anthropological research.
• Ultimately, the goal of the DANA project is to
  create a network of distributed, federated
  databases containing research quality digitized
  3D models, photographs, and video of
  archaeological and cultural data.
• To the user seeking to access a broad variety of
  data, the client application will seem as though
  it is a user-friendly interface to a single
  online database. In actually, the user will be
  conducting searchers across a wide variety of
  databases located across the globe.

http//atl.ndsu.edu/archive/
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DANA Fact Sheet
Technology Used

• Java3D
• Java JDK 1.3
• Java Web Start
• Java Servlets
• JDBC
• NCSA Java3D Portfolio
• IBMs HotMedia Classes

• Though further research is required to implement
  the distributed, federated network aspects of
  DANA, the database browsing application currently
  supports servlet search capabilities for
  Postgress, mySQL, and Oracle databases.
• DANA currently only displays VRML 97 and
  HotMedia 3D models, though the addition of 3D
  file formats supported by the NCSA Java3D
  Portfolio is expected soon.

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WWWIC
World Wide WebInstructional Committee
Other WWWIC Projects

• Geology Explorer
• Virtual Cell
• Programming Land
• Blackwood
• Dollar Bay

http//www.ndsu.edu/wwwic/
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Fishhook Project Website

• main page http//vcell.ndsu.edu/fishhook/
• slideshows http//vcell.ndsu.edu/fishhook/demo
  nstration.html/
• reference links http//vcell.ndsu.edu/fishhoo
  k/lfvfb-links.html
• bibliography http//vcell.ndsu.edu/fishhook
  /biblio.html