Interactive Institute (Umeo, Sweden) will present the first prototype of the Culture Simulator in St. Petersburg and by that open a virtual window to the world through different internet distributed immersive Virtual Reality(VR) scenarios in St.Petersburg, during the 300-years anniversary celebration in 2003.

 

At the end of May 2003 during the week of celebrating of St.Petersburg's 300-years anniversary a very interesting project will take place in St.Petersburg. The name of the project is "A Sense of Sharing" and it's researched and presented by the Interactive Institute of Umeo (Sweden). The Russian co-ordinators of the project are the Administration of St.Petersburg and Association "Norden".

 

The places we grew up in and the cultural environment we live in are the foundation for the way we act and think. To be able to successfully interact, communicate and collaborate with other people in a global world, it is important to understand different human environments, societies and cultures - understand and respect our different cultural behaviour, conventions and rules. Therefore new ways of supporting such understanding and the way it affects social interaction between individuals from different cultures should always be searched for. One such way is to learn by experiencing other cultures.

 

This is the main point of departure for The Culture Simulator Project where the fundamental principle is to promote cross-cultural dialogues by letting people with different cultural backgrounds meet and in real-time experience the same environment. The Culture Simulator will be developed as an interactive cultural environment where people can meet, interact and learn about different cultures in virtual and mixed reality "worlds" with the help of modern information technology. It is crucial for the success of the project to have a close collaboration with the local authorities and representatives for the local cultural heritage.

 

Interactive Institute, Umeo will present the first prototype of the Culture Simulator in St. Petersburg and by that open a virtual window to the world through different internet distributed immersive Virtual Reality(VR) scenarios in St.Petersburg, during the 300-years anniversary celebration. Technically, a CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) will be used in St Petersburg at the Peter and Paulґs fortress. The CAVE will be connected to the internet via a 10 Mbps (at least, preferably more) connection. Anyone in the world with access to an internet-connected CAVE with tele-immersive VR facilities (or head mounted display or similar VR-equipment) with tracking and steering equipment, will have the possibility to enter and interact in the virtual world(s) that we create. The application will be based on Linux and will be platform independent. The newest interaction technologies both hardware- and software wise will be used.