Designing Natural Gesture Interaction for Archaeological Data in Immersive Environments - Diseño de interacción de gestos naturales para datos arqueológicos en entornos de inmersión

Archaeological data are heterogeneous and it is difficult to correlate between the different types. Data-sheets and pictures, stratigraphic data and 3D models, time and space mixed together: are only few of the categories a researcher has to deal with. New technologies may be able to help in this process, filling the gap between history and future, and trying to solve research needs with innovative solutions. In this paper, we describe the whole process for the design and development of a prototype application that uses an Immersive Virtual Reality system to acces archaeological excavation 3D data through the Gesture Variation Follower (GVF) algorithm, that allows to recognise which gesture is being performed and how it is performed. Archaeologists participated actively to the design of the interface and the set of gestures used for triggering the different tasks. Interactive machine learning techniques have been used for the real time detection of the gestures. As a case study the agora of Segesta (Sicily, Italy) has been selected. Indeed, due to the complex architectural features and the still on-going fieldwork activities, Segesta represents an ideal context where to test and develop a research approach integrating both traditional and more innovative tools and methods.