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This paper describes a case study concerning the virtual reconstruction and navigation of an archaeological site located in Moregine, near Pompeii as it appeared to archaeologists after the completion of the excavation and including the reconstruction of face and body appearance of a woman that found death there, during the eruption of 79 BC. The main challenges faced in this study concern the visual engine required to delivering possibly unlimited visual quality and the methodology for achieving an ethnically faithful face reconstruction from skull bones. The first objective is tackled by adopting a prerendering based visualization engine, through which environment navigation is achieved following pre-built paths and performing available actions through a context sensitive motion tracking based interface. Secondly, the plausible appearance of the woman's face is reconstructed exploiting an approach based on craniometrical analysis together with a pictorial physiognomic database and content-based image retrieval technology, to the aim of providing more faithful results compared to other methods in literature based solely on statistical data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One of the most interesting research lines about avatars is the design and the implementation of a synthetic behaviour able to drive avatar''s actions according to an adaptive interaction paradigm. This aspect, indeed, is of fundamental importance to many advanced applications involving avatars and humans. This study presents a novel framework exploiting augmented reality to visualize a synthetic 3D virtual guide inside an exhibit or a public gallery, to assist visitors wearing a Head Mounted Display during their visit and providing them with both visual and informative enhancements not available in a standard tour. The Human–avatar interaction is approached through a model based on timed automata to address the conversational issues and to improve the quality of interaction by means of an effective synchronization. A usability study conducted on an application of this research to the “avatar assisted tour” of a roman villa, confirms the efficacy of the approach. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]