Multimedia Technology and 3D Environments used in the Preservation and Dissemination of Portuguese Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage is an extremely valuable set of materiality, traditions and knowledge from the Past that should be used to better understand the Past itself. However, even nowadays there are still some difficulties to manage, preserve and disseminate cultural heritage sites. The usage of multimedia technology and 3D environments in cultural heritage has reduced these difficulties; nonetheless, there are still some remaining problems. In the last years, some multimedia technology and 3D environments have been applied to the cultural heritage in Portugal. A few of them are used for scientific research purposes and others are used for dissemination purposes. In this article, the authors will refer to some representative Portuguese case studies using Virtual Environments to maintain, preserve and promote Cultural Heritage. A critical reading of these projects will be made in order to stress out their success and to point out their weaknesses and limitations

An analysis on the corrosion of a cultural heritage

Many historical landmarks and cultural heritage are being constantly destroyed through natural events and human actions. It is important to conduct corrosion analysis and two and three-dimension documentation studies to restore and transfer these landmarks to the new generations. It is particularly important to record, keep these historical heritages digitally and take precautions against the potential corrosion due to the wars, natural disasters and climatic factors that continue to the present. In this study, the corrosion in Çanlı Church (ÇanlıKilise) located in Akhisar village of the province of Aksaray in Turkey was determined and the reasons were examined. By using close-range photogrammetry method, three-dimension models and facade charts of three facades (North, West, South) of Çanlı Church have been acquired, as a result of measurements performed in four different times (2006, 2010, 2016, 2019). Overlapping all these charts in the same scale, the corrosions occurred on the facades of Çanlı Church have been examined. The meteorological data within the period when the measurements were performed were reviewed. As a result, corrosion on the North, West and South facades of Çanlı Church have been found at the level of 8%, 3%, 13% respectively. It was concluded that the storm has greater effect on the corrosion

Computação gráfica e arqueologia urbana : o caso de Bracara Augusta

A Computação Gráfica é, seguramente, uma ferramenta importante, e crescentemente utilizada, para representar e manipular grandes quantidades de informação de elevada complexidade. Por sua vez a arqueologia, de uma forma geral, produz um manancial de informação de grande complexidade, pelo que a sua representação utilizando as tecnologias da Computação Gráfica constitui um elevado e aliciante desafio. As reconstruções virtuais que representam arqueosítios, como, por exemplo, a cidade romana de Bracara Augusta, devem ser consideradas uma ferramenta importante e fundamental para o desenvolvimento da investigação levada a cabo por peritos (arqueólogos, arquitectos e especialistas em urbanismo) e para o despertar das consciências relativamente à importância da herança cultural.Computer Graphics is undoubtedly an important tool, widely used for representing and manipulating enormous amounts of high complex information. Usually, the archaeological information is highly complex, so its representation using computer graphics technology is a true and engaging challenge. Virtual reconstructions representing archaeological sites, as for example the roman town Bracara Augusta, should be considered a fundamental tool for the research improvement carried out by experts and extremely important for the uprising of cultural heritage consciousness.Fundação Ilídio Pinho; FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; Programa Operacional Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação do Quadro Comunitário de Apoio II

Computer graphics and urban archaeology Bracara Augusta’s case study

Computer graphics is undoubtedly an important tool, widely used for representing and manipulating enormous amounts of highly complex information. Usually, the archaeological information is highly complex, so its representation using computer graphics technology is a true and engaging challenge. Virtual reconstructions representing archaeological sites, as for example the roman town Bracara Augusta, should be considered a fundamental tool for research improvement carried out by experts. It is also extremely important for the uprising consciousness of cultural heritage.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia; GPCG - Grupo Português de Computação Gráfic

ARQGAN: an evaluation of Generative Adversarial Networks’ approaches for automatic virtual restoration of Greek temples.

In the last years, Graphics Processing Units are evolving fast. This has had a big impact in several fields, such as Computer-Aided Design and particularly in 3D modeling, allowing the development of software for the creation of more detailed models. Nevertheless, building a 3D model is still a cumbersome and time-consuming task. Another field, that is evolving successfully due to this increase in computational capacity is Artificial Intelligence. These techniques are characterized among other things by the fact that they can automate tasks performed by humans. For example, reconstructing parts of images is being a hot topic recently. In this paper, a method based on Artificial Intelligence and in particular Deep Learning techniques is proposed to achieve this task. The aim is to automatically restore Greek temples based on renders of its ruins obtained from 3D model representations. Results show that adding segmented images to the training dataset gives better results. Also, restoration of the general part of the temples is well performed but the detailed elements have room for improvement.pre-print1236 K

Geometric analysis on stone façades with terrestrial laser scanner technology

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article presents a methodology to process information from a Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) from three dimensions (3D) to two dimensions (2D), and to two dimensions with a color value (2.5D), as a tool to document and analyze heritage buildings. Principally focused on the loss of material in stone, this study aims at creating an evaluation method for loss control, taking into account the state of conservation of a building in terms of restoration, from studying the pathologies, to their identification and delimitation. A case study on the Cathedral of the Seu Vella de Lleida was completed, examining the details of the stone surfaces. This cathedral was affected by military use, periods of abandonment, and periodic restorations.Postprint (published version

Digitizing vanishing architectural heritage; The design and development of Qatar historic buildings information modeling [Q-HBIM] platform

The documentation of vanishing architectural heritage includes intensive information and data gathering, filtering, classification and digitization. Enabling such an endeavor necessitates the act of documentation, which requires the cooperation of several professionals from different fields, extensive resources, precise organization, and robust structuring. Therefore, the design and development of an innovative digital platform to facilitate the interaction between users from different specialties is highly desirable to enable dynamic real-time preservation and protection of such invaluable heritage. The aim of this study is to investigate the existing Qatari built heritage, urban conservation methods and the principles of modern digitizing and archiving techniques to create a sustainable and interactive archiving platform-Qatar Historic Buildings Information Modeling (Q-HBIM) platform. This unique digital platform aims to respond to the needs of the society as well as the experts in the fields of urban heritage conservation and buildings restoration. A literature review was conducted on topics relating to Qatar urban heritage and the principles of three-dimensional digitization technology including an exploration of the aspects of sustainable urban preservation. Accordingly, site analysis (physical, photogrammetric and 3D scanning techniques were used), and in-depth interviews were adopted as the main data collection techniques. The findings of this study elucidate the principles of innovative architectural heritage digitization tools involving Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology and processes. It is anticipated that the present work will formulate an advanced and unique interactive archiving tool in the context of Qatar and GCC/MENA regions in the shape of the: Qatar Historic Building Information Modeling (Q-HBIM) platform.This publication was made possible by a UREP award [UREP 10-068-6-007] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of The Qatar Foundation).Scopu