<--- "Future advancement of virtual reality techniques in archaeology should not be restricted to "presentation" techniques, but to explanatory tools" (BARCELÒ 2000).
Interaction is the key-issue for an interesting virtual world (ISDALE 1995); the cognitive improvement (FORTE 2000) of a Virtual Environment consists in making "the virtual world an interactive information system, not simply an aesthetic experience" (FRISCHER et alii 2002). Interactivity, as an extension of the nervous system (CAPUCCI 1993), is realized mostly through the opportunity to explore the Virtual Environment, making queries to access the archaeological and documentary sources managed by a data-base (SCAGLIARINI 2001a), transforming the geometric model in a "cognitive box" (FORTE et alii 2003), a tree-dimensional interface to an information background spatially organized (SCAGLIARINI CORLÀITA forthcoming).
According to the "learning by doing" issue, the "Pompei - Insula del Centenario (IX 8) Project" team decided to develop a geometric model not only visually realistic, but also dynamic and interactive: "a dynamic model is a model that changes in position, size, material properties, lighting and viewing specification. If those changes are not static but respond to user input, we enter into the proper world of Virtual Reality, whose key feature is real-time interaction" (FRISCHER et alii 2002). In order to achieve those aims, supplying users with an interactive experience in the 3D Virtual Environment, the main visual axe of the Casa del Centenario has been realized in MultiGen Creator Paradigm, a software package that supports highly detailed 3D modelling in real-time.
The flexibility of the virtual 3D model of the Casa del Centenario allows the compatibility with a wide range of media, in particular, the Virtual Theatre (CINECA, Bologna), the Virtual Set (RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana, Milano), and the mobile device for on-site fruition of Cultural Heritage WHYRE^® (SCAGLIARINI CORLÀITA et alii forthcoming). While Virtual Theatre and Virtual Set allow an immersive experience of both the "actual" and the "79 A.D." model of the domus, WHYRE^® fruition system offers a multimedia visit to the archaeological site similar to a virtual museum: even if the visitor doesn't move in an entirely virtual environment, he is anyhow immerse in a thick wireless information net, interacting with him both through the controls on the portable tablet and through his position in the surrounding environment, detected by the integrated surveying devices (compass, accelerometers, GPS).

To conclude, the experience of the philological virtual reconstruction of the Casa del Centenario (IX 8, 3.6.a) in Pompeii fulfills the tasks of transparency of the reconstruction process and interactivity of the virtual environment, two of the main issues for a Virtual Archaeology experience which aims to be a basis for scientific research, for presenting an archaeological evidence in an "augmented" (FORTE 2000) way, and for increasing an enriched form of scientific spreading of information. --->