Time Traveler: 

An interactive 3-D media system will be a fundamental means of
resource interpretation.  The system, configured as a multimedia
workstation built into a small, hemispherical "media" room, will
provide a user controlled 3-D travel experience through an
electronically simulated cultural environment.  Through 3-D video
and holographic projections in free space, the computer
information base will permit the user to view and participate in
the dramatization of selected historic scenes.  A range of the
sensory experiences associated with each historic scene will also
be available to system users.  The virtual reality created by the
surrogate time traveler will communicate sensory impressions
about tactile, visual, olfactory, and audio characteristics as
appropriate to the particular experience.

To convey a sense of the socioeconomic context of the site and
historic time, the 3-D system will display the human activities
of the daily routine, interpreting the community events and
historic values associated with each simulated scene.  The
building technology and construction process for each structure
will be accessible for viewing, and the mechanics of industrial
exhibit will be demonstrated in the animated 3-D presentation. 
The system will depict natural and man induced changes to the
buildings and sites portrayed in the scenes.  The system will
also display the processes of building restoration to demonstrate
contemporary rehabilitation techniques and uses of substitute
materials.

Users will be able to tailor the information presented according
to their own sensitivity, interest, and need.  User selections
will be specified by eye contact with objects in the display, and
by spoken responses to voice queries presented in simulated
dialogue with characters portrayed in the historic scene. 
Choices as to the issue path (natural, social, economic, folk,
scientific, design, technological) that the user wishes to follow
through the information base will be presented at each nodal
segment in the unfolding of the cultural scene.  As progressive
selections are made, the system's information "filter" will
recognize preference patterns, and will progressively offer
information choices more relevant to the taste of the user. 

<ffile51>   Animation and 3-D Graphics
<ffile64>   Computing Virtual Reality