PEGASUS : sharing virtual reality exhibitions over the Grid, a pilot and demonstrator

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A major international exhibition provisionally entitled Picture the Middle Ages : Arms, Armour and Manuscripts from the 100 Years' War will be held at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds UK, between Fall 2007 and Spring 2008. Sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, it is based on completed research by the applicant on a group of early 15th-century illuminated manuscripts of Jehan Froissart's Chronicles. This free exhibition offers a marvellous platform for the development of experimental software and grid-enabled technologies for widening and enhancing its dissemination to a broader public in this country and in the USA, and to explore the potential for future Armouries events such as Henry VIII (Tower of London, 2009).Evaluation of the affective impact of the exhibition will be carried out by members of the EPSRC-funded Affective Communication research network, via an AHRC Designing for the 21st Century award (PI Chris Rust, Sheffield Hallam University).Innovative 3D display software and a project website are supported by a dti KTP with Tribal Group, Sheffield, and the applicant. Pre- and post- exhibition trialling will be done by History, English and ICT pupils from St Mary's High School, Chesterfield.One of the four original manuscripts will be displayed in low, dramatic lighting, in a sealed, glazed case, forming the centrepiece of the exhibition. The first contact that visitors will have with the manuscript will be via a 3D immersion experience of the manuscript codex (software by Tribal, Genesys and ZOO Digital; hardware by Inition and Eon). Its virtual 'pages' will be comprehensively explorable (unlike the real object) and hotspotted to enable engagement with different facets of its content and materiality. Several key themes will be engaged with:The Hundred Years' WarJehan Froissart and his ChroniclesConflict, Politics and Warfare in the late 14th centuryArms, Armour and CombattantsLife in a CastleSiege WarfareRulers, Realms and PropagandaAlso:Chronicles in the Making: from sheepskin to parchment bookThe Pierre de Liffol manuscripts: a medieval entrepreneurThe Stonyhurst Manuscript and its 10 'relatives' (illuminated manuscripts from Paris, London, New York, Besanon and Toulouse)Each themed area will be presented with specific reference to the visitor groups most commonly identified by the Armouries in term of the plausible depth of their curiosity, likely engagement and attention span. Account will also be taken of different age groups and of the particular needs of people with disabilities.PDA devices interfacing with RFID tags will be used to provide visitors with a range of optional audio-visual routes through the exhibition (U of Sheffield completed PhD project).The Stonyhurst College manuscript book and its virtual 'companions' will be complemented by a display of contemporary arms and armour from the Royal Armouries' own collections. In addition to website material, the fixed display of the Stonyhurst manuscript book will be enriched and expanded via the interactive 3D display, and through a game and competition devised by Genesys and ZOO Digital Interactive DVD and Video (Sheffield).The process of designing the exhibition has generated a number of exciting ideas, the most appealing of which has centred on the challenge of sharing the exhibition's most absorbing and innovative features with remote audiences at the Royal Armouries' other venues: the Tower of London, Ft Nelson and the Frazier in Louisville, KY, using high-speed/capacity grid resources. The Frazier enjoys federal funding to support such innovation; the Royal Armouries Museum has no such support and is therefore backing the applicant's present application for the purposes described above. Requested: employment costs for a FT technical developer, contribution to Armouries, WUN Grid Bergen and White Rose Grid development costs, plus 10% of Prof Ainsworth's and Dr Romano's time.