You knew it was coming. With everything going high tech these days
it was only a matter of time before virtual reality entered the adventure travel picture. According to this piece
in the BBC, audio tours of historical places may be
replaced with computer-generated images that take you through a site or reenact a historical moment. The whole
thing is being funded by the European Union, that fount of entrepreneurial zeal. The experience will require the
visitor to wear a head-mounted display (of course) with a miniature camera and a backpack computer (please leave your
passport as a deposit). The headcam then feeds the view to the computer where the visitor’s viewpoint is
combined with “animated virtual elements” that might be tailored to the demographic. So there you are at Pompeii, and
the animated villager says, “So, like, right here we were enjoying some bakalava and there was, like, this loud
boom, and next thing you know, we’re covered in lava! It was so bogus!”