Digital technologies in cultural heritage conservation

Continue with my last post, today I will give a more detailed explanation about what kind of digital technologies have been applied archaeology field.

Acquisition and perception of cultural heritage information is the fundamental task for archaeologists. Technologies such as digital photography, 3D scanning, 3S (GIS, RS, and GPS), environment perception and wireless transmission, are widely used in this work.

1. Digital archive related technology

Cultural heritage archive related to text records, pictures, images and videos, etc., sometimes we need to scan and convert the archive traditional paper files into the form of digital files, and combine with "Internet +" technology to achieve cloud storage and query. These digital archives play an increasingly important role in the research and display of cultural heritage.

Ancient lighthouse in Tongzhou, China, photoed by Felice Beato (1860)

2. Digital photography related technology

The popularization of digital photography technology is mainly used for archiving heritage information in the field of cultural heritage, especially massive cloud storage technology, panoramic technology, blockchain technology, etc., which can make the storage, update and access of heritage information more secure and convenient. The advantages of digital photography such as functionality, convenience, editability, and easy dissemination, can quickly and efficiently record information about cultural heritages and achieve permanent archiving and protection of cultural heritages. Digital photography is the basic technology of digital platform for movable cultural relics, immovable cultural relics management and archive management.

For example, software such as Photoscan and TrimbleInpho® can accurately convert raw aerial images and satellite images into coherent and accurate point and surface models,and three-dimensional data.

Using low-altitude aerial photography to generate the elevation of the Beizhuang heritage site (Photo generated by WMWB Technology &Culture ltd.co, Peking University)

3. 3D scanning technology

In the 1980s, Cyberware developed the world's first 3D scanner. 3D scanning not only records the surface information of heritage artifacts in detail, but also further refines tasks such as denoising, triangulation and  texture mapping to record the details of the heritage. The collection of three-dimensional information of cultural relics is usually implemented using a 3D scanning device. At present, 3D scanning technology has been applied to the collection of digital information of cultural relics in various forms, and even measurement can be performed using a robot arm (contact measurement) or applying optical principles (non-contact measurement). Because direct contact with relics may damage the artifact's surface, it is rarely used for the precious heritage surface acquisition, mainly using non-contact 3D scanning technology.

There is an example I would like to share in my blog.

"Researchers at Columbia University, USA have used total stations, 3D laser scanners and digital cameras in archaeological excavations. They reconstructed a precise 3D model of an archaeological site using scanned 3D models and digital images, then constructed an enhanced model by fusing video, panoramic, and GIS data, and finally achieved multi-model expression and interaction with augmented reality (Allen et al., 2004). The workflow is shown below."

The site digitization workflow used by Columbia University

Up to now, I think I have covered most of aspects of digital heritage, from explaining the definition, introducing principles or guidelines from UNESCO, providing examples of these digital technologies and so on. For my next blog, I will go back to my main theme to talk about how digital technologies play the role in virtual museum and other virtual displays.

Reference:
Allen P, Feiner S, Troccoli A, et al. (2004) Seeing into the past: creating a 3D modeling pipeline for archaeological visualization. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on 3D Data Processing, Visualization and Transmission, Thessaloniki, Greece 751-758
Lu, D., Pan, Y. (2011). Digital Preservation for Heritages: Technologies and Applications. Germany: Zhejiang University Press.
Liu,Y. Five questions to understand the digital heritage, Wechat online platform- WMWB, China, Beijing