We present a tool dedicated to deep archaeological
underwater sites exploration by mixing virtual
reality technologies and semantic.
Virtual reality is becoming more democratic, devices
are proposed and efficient softwares are developed.
On the other hand, obtaining 3D models from field
surveys has also made significant advances, also in underwater
context. It is now possible to produce high
precision and accurate models of underwater sites in a
controlled time.
Other works pave the way for the automation of
knowledge integration to raw geometry in order to enhance
3D models with semantics.
Based on these results, we propose a tool dedicated to
virtual exploration of underwater archaeological sites
that provides both photorealistic and semantic oriented
view. With such a tool, it is now possible to virtually
immerse within sites that are unreachable to humans.
The tool relies on an open source virtual reality engine
that can display high resolution models and that
has been enhanced with controls and semantic displays
in order to help archaeologists to fully interact with it.
A demonstrator dedicated to the exploration of the
Xlendi site, Malta is presented.
