The Virtual Endeavor Experiment: A Networked VR Application

The SlCMA (Scaleable Interactive Continuous Media Server-Design and Application) project has been part ofthe European Union's Advanced Communication Technologies and Services (ACTS) Program since the first call for proposals in 1995. The overall aim of the SlCMA project is to design a scaleable server for the delivery of continuous multimedia information over a network to client computers.
The functionality of this server will be tested by a real-time Virtual Reality (VR) exhibition at The Natural History
Museum (NHM) in London for three months from June 1997. A later trial will deliver a scaled-down version of the exhibition to a number of home users, via a video-on-demand provider. The VR exhibition will be based on the voyage of discovery to the South Pacific made by Captain Cook on the sailing ship Endeavor. Visitors will be able to freely move around a VR reconstruction of the ship containing various exhibits in the form of videos, pictures and 3D objects. The ship's cabins and all the exhibits will be fully narrated and integrated together to make a seamless but non-linear experience for the visitor.
Visitors reactions to the exhibition will be extensively monitored and evaluated. The Natural History Museum hopes that this unique experimental exhibition will provide an insight into the future of electronic outreach projects for the heritage industry. The overall budget of the SICMA project is about 6.5 MECU. The amount of the funding from the European Commission is 3.9 MECU.