[Gocamino] Virtual Reality Model of Santiago Cathedral ca. 1211 AD

[Eldor Pederson]

The Cultural Virtual Reality Laboratory at UCLA has developed a virtual reality model of the Cathedral as it existed when the pilgrimage was at its peak. A lead investigator on the project is Prof. John Dagenais, a grandfather of GoCamino and, indirectly at least, American Pilgrims on the Camino. Included in the presentation is a sound model illustrating the acoustics of the cathedral with a brief concert. At this time only descriptions and a "flythrough" of the project with a few sample images are available online at:

http://www.cvrlab.org/projects/real_time/santiago_compostela/santiago_compostela.html<http://www.cvrlab.org/projects/real_time/santiago_compostela/santiago_compostela.html>

and 

http://www.ats.ucla.edu/videos/compostela_choir_prog.mov<http://www.ats.ucla.edu/videos/compostela_choir_prog.mov>

 

Anyone with UCLA affiliation or access to some other VR facility with a very fast-internet connection able to handle large files and the appropriate equipment for VR presentations might want to contact the laboratory for information on how to view the project in full virtual reality. If possible, a demonstration at some future gathering of pilgrims should be arranged. UCLA has a special facility for viewing such presentations: http://www.ats.ucla.edu/portal/default.htm<http://www.ats.ucla.edu/portal/default.htm>

 

  

For more information on the lab and its various projects, including this one, see the website (pdf download)

http://www.cvrlab.org/research/images/FrischerVirtRetro2003.pdf<http://www.cvrlab.org/research/images/FrischerVirtRetro2003.pdf> 

describing the various projects of the lab which also include, among others,  a model of ancient Rome, one of the Island of the Sun in Lake Titicaca (now in Bolivia) under the Inca, and one of  Port Royal in Jamaica when it was a center of piracy in the 17th century. For anyone with an interest in virtual reality, the lab's projects are exciting ones.