Temple complex ‘Virtual Nako’ – 3D Visualisation of cultural heritage in Google Earth

Syria is a country of many civilizations, Marie, Aramaic, Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Ottoman civilizations. Unfortunally the recent war is the reason for many cultural heritage items to be destroyed, beyond the thausand civilian people killed. In 2010, just before the war, the A. made a touristic trip together with Crua (Recreational Club of the Ancona University). It was the occasion to make some fast documentation of some Syrian CH monuments. Mostly of the images were taken by the A. not to make a survey, but as a photographic report, as fast and complete as possible. For a regular survey project, the tripod, the spherical head should be used for the takings and the 3x3 Cipa rules should be followed, that occurred only in the three main projects, say the survey of the citadel walls in Aleppo, the survey of the Umayyads Mosque in Damascus, and the survey of the minaret of the Umayyads Mosque in Aleppo. All the other documentation surveys have been carried out with hand-held camera taking the dimension of the model from Google earth high resolution, when available. But, apart the regular surveys, due to the explosion of the unexpected war, the photographs taken in such a touristic way, have been used to try to get some usable plottings an restitutions and it worked successfully mostly of the times. These surveys could be useful in case of reconstruction and in case of lack of suitable alternative metric documentation. Because of the continuing threats, all six Syrian World Heritage properties were inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger, at the 37th session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Cambodia last June: Ancient City of Aleppo, Ancient City of Bosra, Ancient City of Damascus, Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, Krak des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din ans finally the Site of Palmyra. See the following links: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kr.a3e0DL5sA"target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kr.a3e0DL5sA</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltFFjjrUgtU"target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltFFjjrUgtU</a>. Apart the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria, the A. visited all the World Heritage sites and partly documented. Some of them have already been plotted, some are in the orientation stage, some have been documented only.

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Google Earth as a Powerful Tool for Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Applications: A Review

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs10101558 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 1558 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Lei Luo ◽

Xinyuan Wang ◽

Huadong Guo ◽

Rosa Lasaponara ◽

Pilong Shi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Case Studies ◽

Geographical Information Systems ◽

Multiple Scales ◽

Google Earth ◽

Research Field ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Computer Application ◽

Observation Data ◽

Spatial Coverage

Google Earth (GE), a large Earth-observation data-based geographical information computer application, is an intuitive three-dimensional virtual globe. It enables archaeologists around the world to communicate and share their multisource data and research findings. Different from traditional geographical information systems (GIS), GE is free and easy to use in data collection, exploration, and visualization. In the past decade, many peer-reviewed articles on the use of GE in the archaeological cultural heritage (ACH) research field have been published. Most of these concern specific ACH investigations with a wide spatial coverage. GE can often be used to survey and document ACH so that both skilled archaeologists and the public can more easily and intuitively understand the results. Based on geographical tools and multi-temporal very high-resolution (VHR) satellite imagery, GE has been shown to provide spatio-temporal change information that has a bearing on the physical, environmental, and geographical character of ACH. In this review, in order to discuss the huge potential of GE, a comprehensive review of GE and its applications to ACH in the published scientific literature is first presented; case studies in five main research fields demonstrating how GE can be deployed as a key tool for studying ACH are then described. The selected case studies illustrate how GE can be used effectively to investigate ACH at multiple scales, discover new archaeological sites in remote regions, monitor historical sites, and assess damage in areas of conflict, and promote virtual tourism. These examples form the basis for highlighting current trends in remote sensing archaeology based on the GE platform, which could provide access to a low-cost and easy-to-use tool for communicating and sharing ACH geospatial data more effectively to the general public in the era of Digital Earth. Finally, a discussion of the merits and limitations of GE is presented along with conclusions and remaining challenges.

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Integrated Methods for Cultural Heritage Risk Assessment: Google Earth Engine, Spatial Analysis, Machine Learning

10.1007/978-3-030-86970-0_42 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 605-619

Author(s):

Maria Danese ◽

Dario Gioia ◽

Marilisa Biscione

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Risk Assessment ◽

Spatial Analysis ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Google Earth ◽

Integrated Methods ◽

Google Earth Engine

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Filling gaps in cultural heritage documentation by 3D photography

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprsarchives-xl-5-w7-365-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol XL-5/W7 ◽

pp. 365-369

Author(s):

W. Schuhr ◽

J. D. Lee

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Aerial Photography ◽

Spatial Perception ◽

3D Visualization ◽

Vitreous Body ◽

Ground Truth ◽

Google Earth ◽

Maximum Height ◽

Low Altitude ◽

3D Photography

This contribution promotes 3D photography as an important tool to obtain objective object information. Keeping mainly in mind World Heritage documentation as well as Heritage protection, it is another intention of this paper, to stimulate the interest in applications of 3D photography for professionals as well as for amateurs. In addition this is also an activity report of the international CIPA task group 3. The main part of this paper starts with “Digging the treasure of existing international 3D photography”. This does not only belong to tangible but also to intangible Cultural Heritage. 3D photography clearly supports the recording, the visualization, the preservation and the restoration of architectural and archaeological objects. Therefore the use of 3D photography in C.H. should increase on an international level. The presented samples in 3D represent a voluminous, almost partly “forgotten treasure” of international archives for 3D photography. The next chapter is on “Promoting new 3D photography in Cultural Heritage”. Though 3D photographs are a well-established basic photographic and photogrammetric tool, even suited to provide “near real” documentation, they are still a matter of research and improvement. Beside the use of 3D cameras even single lenses cameras are very much suited for photographic 3D documentation purposes in Cultural Heritage. Currently at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal, low altitude aerial photography is exposed from a maximum height of 13m, using a hand hold carbon telescope rod. The use of this “huge selfie stick” is also an (international) recommendation, to expose high resolution 3D photography of monuments under expedition conditions. In addition to the carbon rod recently a captive balloon and a hexacopter UAV- platform is in use, mainly to take better synoptically (extremely low altitude, ground truth) aerial photography. Additional experiments with respect to “easy geometry” and to multistage concepts of 3D photographs in Cultural Heritage just started. Furthermore a revised list of the 3D visualization principles, claiming completeness, has been carried out. Beside others in an outlook *It is highly recommended, to list every historical and current stereo view with relevance to Cultural Heritage in a global Monument Information System (MIS), like in google earth. *3D photographs seem to be very suited, to complete and/or at least partly to replace manual archaeological sketches. In this concern the still underestimated 3D effect will be demonstrated, which even allows, e.g., the spatial perception of extremely small scratches etc... *A consequent dealing with 3D Technology even seems to indicate, currently we experience the beginning of a new age of “real 3DPC- screens“, which at least could add or even partly replace the conventional 2D screens. Here the spatial visualization is verified without glasses in an all-around vitreous body. In this respect nowadays widespread lasered crystals showing monuments are identified as “Early Bird“ 3D products, which, due to low resolution and contrast and due to lack of color, currently might even remember to the status of the invention of photography by Niepce (1827), but seem to promise a great future also in 3D Cultural Heritage documentation. *Last not least 3D printers more and more seem to conquer the IT-market, obviously showing an international competition.

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HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER: A REPORT ON THE CIPA TROPICAL SCHOOL IN CANDI SEWU (INDONESIA)

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xlvi-m-1-2021-493-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol XLVI-M-1-2021 ◽

pp. 493-497

Author(s):

A. Murtiyoso ◽

D. Suwardhi ◽

P. Grussenmeyer ◽

W. A. Fadilah ◽

K. N. Fauzan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Transfer ◽

Cultural Heritage ◽

Public Interest ◽

Knowledge Dissemination ◽

Temple Complex ◽

The World ◽

Key Players ◽

Training Event ◽

Processing Algorithms

Abstract. Documentation of heritage objects has advanced significantly with the invention and development of many 3D sensors and processing algorithms. These technical advancements are of the utmost interest for cultural heritage stakeholders; knowledge transfer between key players is therefore essential and is indeed the main philosophy behind the CIPA Heritage Documentation as an organisation. In this paper we present a report on the CIPA Tropical School in the Candi Sewu temple complex in Indonesia. Organisational aspects will be described, as well as some technical results of the workshop. As public interest in the tropical school was quite high, we argue that this type of limited participant training event involving international partners and cross-disciplinary experts is a very powerful tool in knowledge dissemination. Furthermore, we encourage the organisation of such events in other places around the world.

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Virtual Community Heritage – An Immersive Approach to Community Heritage

The Journal of Media Innovations ◽

10.5617/jomi.8791 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 4-18

Author(s):

Joan Condell ◽

Niall McShane ◽

Jorge Avlarez ◽

Alan Miller

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Mixed Reality ◽

Virtual Community ◽

Digital Technologies ◽

Global Level ◽

3D Visualisation ◽

Digital Heritage ◽

Cultural Heritage Material ◽

Participatory Practices ◽

Community Heritage

Our relationship with cultural heritage has been transformed by digital technologies. Opportunities have emerged to preserve and access cultural heritage material while engaging an audience at both regional and global level. Accessibility of technology has enabled audiences to participate in digital heritage curation process. Participatory practices and co-production methodologies have created new relationships between museums and communities, as they are engaged to become active participants in the co-design and co-creation of heritage material. Audiences are more interested in experiences vs services nowadays and museums and heritage organisations have potential to entertain while providing engaging experiences beyond their physical walls. Mixed reality is an emerging method of engagement that has allowed enhanced interaction beyond traditional 3D visualisation models into fully immersive worlds. There is potential to transport audiences to past worlds that enhance their experience and understanding of cultural heritage.

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