Date: Wednesday 18 Feb 2015
Time: 18:30 – for a 19:00 start
Speaker: Rossella Suma – WMG – University of Warwick
Location: location IMC Auditorium – University of Warwick
Abstract: Cultural Heritage represents an enormous amount of information and knowledge that can be digitally processed and analysed in many creative ways that have yet to be fully explored. The evolution of culture, literacy and society during the last decades of the 20th century has brought deep transformations in the role and function of museums and cultural institutions. They have to face the problems of providing access to cultural heritage sites, communicating cultural content to a wide and assorted audience and meeting the expectations and interests of the end-users while relying on the most appropriate tools available.The technology we have at our disposal is a major asset in pursuing these objectives.
In the past manually documenting Cultural Heritage sites has required an enormous amount of effort and time. Recent advances in computer vision and graphics offer fast and easy-to-use methods to digitally capture any environment. These techniques enable the creation of accurate three dimensional virtual models for cost-effective preservation, documentation and protection of historically significant landmark. In this talk Rosella presented a brief overview of several key components of the Digital Cultural Heritage pipeline, from data acquisition to the visualisation of a 3D Virtual Reconstruction. The use of 3-D laser scanning, cameras mounted in remote quadcopters and photo-mosaics were presented and discussed. A live example was presented and attendees all had the opportunity to “walk” around the 3-D model of a Greek church, being careful not to stumble on the steps! Thanks were extended to Rosella for a lively and engaging talk.