The "Tholos" was designed as a Virtual Reality museum, which will host and make accessible to the general public the digital collections of the Foundation of the Hellenic World (IME). These collections are documents of high cultural value, as they are developed and organized based on an original and globally pioneering process of research, documentation, and visualization of historical and archaeological information.

The uniqueness of the "Tholos" lies in its ability to project fully interactive content on the hemispherical projection surface, inclined at 23 degrees. It thus constitutes a unique large-scale Virtual Reality infrastructure. The content projected in the "Tholos," as well as in IME's existing smaller Virtual Reality systems, the "Ark" and the "Magic Screen," is not "pre-recorded," but thanks to its digital infrastructure, it has flexibility and vitality. This significant difference is due to the fact that the primary mechanism for creating and projecting in the digital "Tholos" is very powerful arrays of computers, which generate the projected images in real time, using the visualized information already produced by IME.

A major advantage of this method is the ability to "create" photorealistic reproductions of places, buildings, monuments, and even people that exist only in the imagination of their creators or the researcher architects, historians, and archaeologists who have been trying for decades to describe and reproduce them with sketches in two dimensions, based on their ruins and the sources that have been preserved. As a result, endless alternative touring scenarios are created in the same virtual model, which evolve at the moment of the tour, and the visitor has the opportunity to navigate in real time. Besides the fact that this medium can also be used by creators or producers for a multitude of other purposes and applications, it also has the ability to incorporate and display any kind of digital content in the three-dimensional space: from videos and pre-processed digital projections to Internet websites.

The superiority of the "Tholos" lies in its dual ability to create the sense of "immersion" in the virtual space, i.e., the feeling that we are really there, as well as interactivity with the virtual space and the objects that constitute it. The audience is no longer just a spectator in a realistic scenography but can actively participate in the program and even determine its own experience. Since the images they see are not predetermined or "pre-recorded", but are generated in real time, the audience can interact with the space and accordingly determine the behavior of the virtual space.

A global innovation in the "Tholos" is the ability it provides for full stereoscopic projection on the entire surface of the screen, using 12 projectors and special stereoscopic glasses, thereby enhancing the sense of immersion and providing additional interaction possibilities. Naturally, the projection on the concave hemispherical surface, even without the use of the stereoscopic capability, creates a three-dimensional sensation. The possibilities of combining and alternating them, in conjunction with interaction scenarios, make the "Tholos" a unique project worldwide.

Another innovation is the ability of the "Tholos" to integrate in real-time interaction between virtual and real elements, and especially presenters and performers, using special motion capture and modeling technologies. This capability brings the performing arts closer to Virtual Reality and multiplies the audience's sense of immersion, as well as the educational and expressive uses of the medium.

The "Tholos" features state-of-the-art 7.1 cinema-quality sound systems, as well as all related control systems.

The Experience

In order for the viewer's eye to adjust to the dark environment of the main projection hall, they first pass through a semi-dark space, where for 5-10 minutes they watch a multimedia presentation from multiple screens, during which they receive information about the "Tholos", the presentation they are about to see, or the project and the digital representation itself.

The construction and equipment of the Tholos was funded under the Attica operational program of the 3rd CSF,
(50% National resources 50% European Regional Development Fund)