Quasi–Mixed Reality in Digital Cultural Heritage. Combining 3D Reconstructions with Real Structures on Location—The Case of Ancient Phalasarna

Traditional Mixed Reality as it is currently experienced on popular mobile devices has its obvious limitations in the context of Cultural Heritage. Neither the sensor fusion approach nor the pattern recognition solutions are precise or stable enough to provide a satisfactory visual match between the live video feed and the graphical layer of digital information. The fundamental incompatibility between 2D live video and dynamic 3D graphics also makes this a short–lived solution in a long–range perspective. While we are waiting for sustainable solutions for real time 3D capture and display on mobile and wearable devices it is pertinent to employ and evaluate transitional alternatives for effective use on location . In the research and development reported here we created a static 3D version of the current archaeological site based on photogrammetry. This is done in order to test how it may serve as an intermediate level of representation for increased precision when combining the real present with the reconstructed past. In this chapter we present and discuss the experiences we have gained exploring this type of Indirect Augmented Reality, which we have named ‘Quasi–Mixed Reality’, on location at the archaeological site of Ancient Phalasarna on western Crete.