Il Virtuale per il Patrimonio Culturale: prospettive e direzioni future

Modern computing and virtual environment technologies can immerse users into highly realistic computer-generated environments, in which visible and invisible, hypothetical and imaginary objects can be merged into a single, coherent world. These aspects make it natural to apply them to explore areas of cultural interest: a virtual tourist can immerse into places that are inaccessible because only existent in ancient ages, or still existing but closed for repairs, or simply too distant to be reached. An entire city centre can now be reproduced in 4D, with time as the fourth dimension, representing and amplifying centuries of history in a single, virtual space.