Virtual reconstruction 3.0: New approach of web-based visualisation and documentation of lost cultural heritage

Abstract

The paper presents the project entitled “Virtual Reconstructions in Transnational Research Environments the Portal: ‘Palaces and Parks in former East Prussia”’ in the light of the SemanticWeb and Open Source technologies. The researches are focused on certification, classification, annotation, storage and visualisation of 3D data sets, proposing methodology of the computer-based 3D computer reconstruction of Cultural Heritage, which are still lacking. The multinational and interdisciplinary project with interactive 3D models being part of a semantic data model, is concerned with designing a Virtual Research Environment. Our approach affects the entire process of digital 3D reconstruction with the development of an XML schema called Cultural Heritage Markup Language as a groundwork for an application ontology. The results bring new insights into areas such as effective data acquisition, documentation, semantic 3D modelling and visualisation and data management. They may be useful for the creation of Virtual Environments and other forms of Cultural Heritage’s interactive presentation that employ open source visualisations standards (e.g. WebGL technology). An aspect that needs to be improved concerns coding and uploading large 3D data sets using alternative formats, with an emphasis on art and architectural models. We have developed a technique for coding, long-term storing and decoding 3D geometrical data in 2D PNG files, which are characterised by small size and lossless compression.