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MULTIMEDIA GUIDE IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES BY GIS-GPS TECHNIQUES, 
POCKETPCS AND POCKET GPSs 
A. Scianna *, B. Villa **, A. Ammoscato **, R. Corsale** 
* C.N.R. DAST - Dipartimento di Rappresentazione — Università di Palermo, viale delle Scienze c/o Facoltà di 
Ingegneria, 90128 Palermo, Italy — e-mail: scianna@dirap.unipa.it 
** Dipartimento di Rappresentazione — Università di Palermo, viale delle Scienze c/o Facoltà di Ingegneria, 90128 
Palermo, Italy — e-mail: bevilla@unipa.it 
Commission TS, ThS 6 
KEY WORDS: Archaeology, GPS, GIS, Multimedia 
ABSTRACT: 
Archaeology is one of the sectors that can benefit by new surveying techniques (i.e. those ones related to the use of GPS) for the 
representation and the management of an archaeological site. Another aspect of the archaeological sector that can take advantage 
from the use of both GPS and G/S instruments is guided visits of archaeological sites. Today, during visits in museums, visitors 
often use some electronic equipments as sound players, special headsets or personal computers equipped with multimedia 
applications. All this is possible because archaeological goods are in a relatively small covered area, where there are also people that 
can help the visitor at every time. On the opposite, about visiting open archacological sites, some other problems or needs come out 
connected to the big dimension of the area, to the scattered distribution of archaeological goods and to meteorological conditions. So 
enjoying the site with traditional electronics equipment become impossible. On the contrary both Pocket GPSs and PocketPCs, 
connected together, may be very useful if used for multimedia guided visits of archaeological sites. This paper treats of the creation 
of a GIS multimedia guide running on PocketPC connected to a Pocket GPS by the Bluetooth interface, developed with Enhanced 
R 
Visual Basic". The system is in the testing stage in some archaeological sites in Sicily. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Sicily has always been, due to its geographical position, land of 
conquest and occupation for peoples interested to control the 
Mediterranean sea. The invasions left many examples of urban 
structures and buildings; the remains are sometimes embedded 
in the cities, but very often they are sited in the countryside. 
Since the beginning of 19" century, many excavation 
campaigns have brought to light interesting archaeological sites 
that are the witness of ancient people who lived in Sicily. 
Archaeological goods are public property under the control of a 
Regional Office for Cultural Goods (Soprintendenza Regionale 
ai Beni Culturali) which has given the support for the 
development of this research. 
Archaeological sites are also a good tourist resource to promote 
Sicily Region and therefore an important economic resource. So 
it is a primary action to build information infrastructures to 
enjoy this goods through a visit on site or virtual tour. 
The main goal of the research project is the creation of 
multimedia guides to support tourist’s visit of archaeological 
sites in Sicily. 
The goal is achieved through the use of pocketPc and Pocket 
GPS and a software application by which is possible to define 
in real time position of visitors in an open archaeological site, 
and to give them, also in automatic way, the information on 
goods of visited areas. 
For the different archaeological sites in Sicily, general maps at 
large scale (1:2000) and surveys at very large scale (1:20 for 
detailed architectural representation) are often available. 
Usually only traditional instruments are used in surveying 
activities and a digital map doesn't exist or it is never used as 
base map. Even in the better situations, only a scanned raster 
635 
map is available. Besides GIS or WEB-GIS technologies are 
rarely used in the archaeological sector. 
So in order to develop the research, it has been necessary to 
start with base operations as like creating suitable maps for the 
specific aim. 
The research project is organized into four main stages: 
|. Investigations on typological and dimensional 
features of archaeological sites in order to establish needs 
and hence the suitable equipments to carry out the project; 
2. tests on pocket GPSs in order to choose the areas for 
the experimentation, collection and/or creation of a 
medium scale base maps suitable to aims: 
3. collection of historical and typological information, 
design and construction of a GIS for chosen sites; 
4. construction of an application for navigation in the 
archaeological site (the multimedia guide). 
The satisfaction of proposed aims is also due to the evolution of 
GIS and GPS instruments. During last years, some important 
changes are introduced in the GPS field so to make possible the 
development of this research: the elimination of SA error by 
U.S.A. Army and the activation of WAAS-EGNOS differential 
correction system, that is of primary importance for the use of 
pocket GPS in the shown experimentation. 
2. PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTATION ON TEST 
AREAS 
In the early stage of research development, some tests have 
been carried out in the campus area of University of Palermo, to 
validate some ideas assumed as basis for the entire process. 
[n order to check the possibilities of the use of pocket GPS 
instruments, many measurements and observations has been 
made on different kinds of predefined paths. according to the