Advanced Techniques for Fast and Accurate Heritage Digitisation in Multiple Case Studies

All elements of heritage are exposed to more or less predictable risks. Even though they are in a good state of conservation with economic support for their repair or maintenance, they can suffer sudden accidents leading to their imminent destruction. It is therefore necessary to safeguard them in all scenarios, regardless of the respective scale or state of conservation. That process must at least be based on complete and accurate 3D digitisation. The evolution of devices, software/hardware and platforms nowadays allows such information to be gathered in a sustainable manner. Various existing resources were tried and compared at several heritage sites of different scales with dissimilar risk and protection, following the guidelines of different ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) committees. Each case study addresses the choice of digitisation techniques and the characteristics of the end product obtained. The most suitable modality for each situation is analysed, depending on different factors such as accessibility and risks faced. Although the 3D laser scanner is clearly a very fast and very accurate resource, automated photogrammetry is one of the more accessible and affordable resources; along with the potential of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), this enables the digitisation to be sustainably completed

ACCURACY ASSESSMENT OF 3D MODELS GENERATED FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW IMAGERY

Google Street View is a technology implemented in several Google services/applications (e.g. Google Maps, Google Earth) which provides the user, interested in viewing a particular location on the map, with panoramic images (represented in equi-rectangular projection) at street level. Generally, consecutive panoramas are acquired with an average distance of 5–10 m and can be compared to a traditional photogrammetric strip and, thus, processed to reconstruct portion of city at nearly zero cost. Most of the photogrammetric software packages available today implement spherical camera models and can directly process images in equi-rectangular projection. Although many authors provided in the past relevant works that involved the use of Google Street View imagery, mainly for 3D city model reconstruction, very few references can be found about the actual accuracy that can be obtained with such data. The goal of the present work is to present preliminary tests (at time of writing just three case studies has been analysed) about the accuracy and reliability of the 3D models obtained from Google Street View panoramas

COMBINATION OF THERMAL INFRARED IMAGES AND LASERSCANNING DATA FOR 3D THERMAL POINT CLOUD GENERATION ON BUILDINGS AND TREES

The thermal infrared study of urban environments is of growing interest. It allows to observe the variations of surface temperatures on objects over time and therefore the microclimate at the scale of a street. To facilitate the analysis of thermal interactions between urban elements, it is necessary to provide a 3D visualization of the thermography of a street. For this purpose, 3D thermal models combining geometric and thermal infrared (TIR) measurements are required. The chosen format for 3D thermal models is a point cloud with a temperature attribute. In our approach, two types of urban components are considered: buildings and trees. The geometric data of each component are acquired with a static laser scanner and the surface temperature is acquired with a thermal handheld camera. For the building, the approach consists in georeferencing TIR images and colorize the point cloud by projection. For trees, the approach consists of the colorization of each laser scan prior to the registration. The spherical panoramic images acquired with the Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) are used as references to automatically georeferenced the TIR and thus to save time. The 3D thermal models obtained highlight the impact of sunlight on buildings and trees. At building scale, this thermal representation also helps to emphasize thermal bridges, as well as the shadow generated by surrounding trees. At tree scale, this representation is useful for monitoring the temporal and spatial variability of trunk’s and leave’s temperatures. Obviously, the thermal models underline the impact of trees on the urban environment

Suitability Study of Structure-from-Motion for the Digitisation of Architectural (Heritage) Spaces to Apply Divergent Photograph Collection

The digitisation of architectural heritage has experienced a great development of low-cost and high-definition data capture technologies, thus enabling the accurate and effective modelling of complex heritage assets. Accordingly, research has identified the best methods to survey historic buildings, but the suitability of Structure-from-Motion/Multi-view-Stereo (SfM/MVS) for interior square symmetrical architectural spaces is unexplored. In contrast to the traditional SfM surveying for which the camera surrounds the object, the photograph collection approach is divergent in courtyards. This paper evaluates the accuracy of SfM point clouds against Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) for these large architectural spaces with a symmetrical configuration, with the main courtyard of Casa de Pilatos in Seville, Spain, as a case study. Two different SfM surveys were conducted: (1) Without control points, and (2) referenced using a total station. The first survey yielded unacceptable results: A standard deviation of 0.0576 m was achieved in the northwest sector of the case study, mainly because of the difficulty of aligning the SfM and TLS data due to the way they are produced. This value could be admissible depending on the purpose of the photogrammetric model

Gaming Art History: A Study of Game-Based Pedagogy and Its Applications in Art History

Today, high school and college students are likely to be exposed to famous architecture through video games that feature historical settings before learning about it in an academic setting. Architecture plays a fundamental role in these games, and they often include sites that are relevant to art history. This paper investigates how video games can be used as pedagogical tools in art history. Accurately-replicated historical sites in video games are accessible to audiences who may not be interested otherwise, and scholars suggest that their use in the classroom can enhance students’ understanding and push more advanced material. Drawing from the existing scholarship on game-based pedagogy, I offer lesson plans centered around the use of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a game that offers a faithful reconstruction of the Parthenon. This is substantiated through comparisons of in-game images to photos and textbook descriptions that suggest what the site would have looked like at the time in which the game is set

Suitability Study of Structure-from-Motion for the Digitisation of Architectural (Heritage) Spaces to Apply Divergent Photograph Collection

The digitisation of architectural heritage has experienced a great development of low-cost and high-definition data capture technologies, thus enabling the accurate and effective modelling of complex heritage assets. Accordingly, research has identified the best methods to survey historic buildings, but the suitability of Structure-from-Motion/Multi-view-Stereo (SfM/MVS) for interior square symmetrical architectural spaces is unexplored. In contrast to the traditional SfM surveying for which the camera surrounds the object, the photograph collection approach is divergent in courtyards. This paper evaluates the accuracy of SfM point clouds against Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) for these large architectural spaces with a symmetrical configuration, with the main courtyard of Casa de Pilatos in Seville, Spain, as a case study. Two different SfM surveys were conducted: (1) Without control points, and (2) referenced using a total station. The first survey yielded unacceptable results: A standard deviation of 0.0576 m was achieved in the northwest sector of the case study, mainly because of the difficulty of aligning the SfM and TLS data due to the way they are produced. This value could be admissible depending on the purpose of the photogrammetric model

An Approach Of Automatic Reconstruction Of Building Models For Virtual Cities From Open Resources

Along with the ever-increasing popularity of virtual reality technology in recent years, 3D city models have been used in different applications, such as urban planning, disaster management, tourism, entertainment, and video games. Currently, those models are mainly reconstructed from access-restricted data sources such as LiDAR point clouds, airborne images, satellite images, and UAV (uncrewed air vehicle) images with a focus on structural illustration of buildings’ contours and layouts. To help make 3D models closer to their real-life counterparts, this thesis research proposes a new approach for the automatic reconstruction of building models from open resources. In this approach, first, building shapes are reconstructed by using the structural and geographic information retrievable from the open repository of OpenStreetMap (OSM). Later, images available from the street view of Google maps are used to extract information of the exterior appearance of buildings for texture mapping onto their boundaries. The constructed 3D environment is used as prior knowledge for the navigation purposes in a self-driving car. The static objects from the 3D model are compared with the real-time images of static objects to reduce the computation time by eliminating them from the detection proces

Environmental design studies on perception and simulation: an urban design approach

Perceptual simulation represents an attempt to anticipate physical reality, whereby people can experience and interpret future environments from a subjective perspective. Working on experiential simulation for urban and landscape design requires an understanding of the relationship between man and the environment from a perceptual and cognitive standpoint. In fact, only by investigating the sensing and cognitive processes behind perception can we establish an informed approach to simulation of places and their ambiances. In particular, we propose a parallelism between man/environment and man/simulation relationships, aiming at giving back a framework for replicating in simulation the multisensory aspects that occur in the perception of the physical world. Hence, the objective of this article is to present how we approach the dimension of perceptual simulation within our research and professional work as urban designers. From a methodological point of view, we explored the topic through two main tasks, namely the selection and reconstruction of the research context and the key issues of perceptual simulation finalized in the second task, i.e. the construction of a set of simulation tools for urban design, intended as a matrix of possible practical applications. In particular, the theoretical framework presented in this work consists of a selection and overview of references relevant to urban design, comprehension of the research context and delivery of the set of tools implemented within our research unit. This matrix of tools represents the novelty of this work and is intended as a practical reference for orienting the choice among different simulation tools within the urban design practice. For instance, it is important to highlight the efficacy of each type of simulation in mimicking the man/environment relationship