Archaeoscan launches $10,000 Kickstarter

Press Release: Explore thousands of years old sites with Oculus Rift

AMSTERDAM — ArcheoScan has launched a 10,000 Euro (US $10,500) Kickstarter campaign to convert a scanned archeological site for virtual reality.

(Image courtesy Archaeoscan.)
(Image courtesy Archaeoscan.)

“Imagine yourself exploring mysterious tombs and secret places built even before the Roman Empire started. Picture yourself walking around, jumping or swimming underwater in order to reach secret rooms,” said founder Sergio Giucastro. “Every single detail, every single stone is 100 percent authentic. And everything looks so real, so scary; the shadows, the light reflections and even the echo of your steps.”

Some 200 years ago the British explorer George Dennis was so exited visiting these tombs (Castel d’Asso Necropolis) that he compared them to the Egyptian pyramids.

We want everybody to experience the same sense of wonder without visiting the physical location. 

Archaeoscan is about building a virtual reality experience based on a real, authentic archaeological site, starting with a thousands years old Etruscan Necropolis, located in a forsaken wild location in Italy, close to Rome.

The location has already been 3d scanned and every single detail has been reconstructed with an accuracy close to 5 millimeters.

“We are currently working on the software and we aim to release a first version on August 2015,” said Giucastro.

Archaoescan is designed for Oculus Rift but also supports virtual reality headsets that work with the iPhone, Android, Windows and MacOS systems.

“Our goal is to get Archaeoscan into the hands of early adopters and archaeology lovers as soon as possible,” said Giucastro. “We want our users to be involved, whether to provide feedback on the experience, or to develop new content that will blow the platform open to wider audiences. We strongly invite archaeologists and museums to contact us for more information in order to work together and build the most accurate experience possible.”

About Archaeoscan

Amsterdam-based Archaeoscan provides virtual reality solutions on the Unity, Oculus, and Structure platforms, as well as 3D scanning and 3D models licensing. For more information, visit archaeoscan.com.