MULTIMEDIA GUIDE IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES BY GIS-GPS TECHNIQUES, POCKETPCS AND POCKET GPSs

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 GIS 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 archaeological 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 Visual Basic. The system is in the testing stage in some archaeological sites in Sicily.