A Web-Based Platform for Management and Visualization of Geometric Documentation Products of Cultural Heritage Sites

Abstract

Abstract. The mission of digital Cultural Heritage (CH) repositories goes beyond engagement and dissemination; their research data should be approached and correlated spatially and semantically in the service of conservation and accessibility. Therefore, a flexible system is needed to expand, reuse and repurpose their content, addressing online collaboration, real time progress and ease of use. Towards this direction, the “METEORA” web-based platform is a novel and holistic approach to the organization, management and visualization of the 3D and 2D documentation products of CH sites. It integrates a multi-scale 3D viewer based on the 3DHOP framework, personalized information access and interactive tools for data retrieval and presentation. Emphasis is given in the development of a mid-level interface for creating, updating and maintaining 3DHOP’s functionalities and customizing information based on the user’s scientific specialty and field of interest. The proposed admin control panel updates the state of the current visualization, allows the integration of 3D models and multimedia and automates the creation of clickable points of interest on top of the 3D surfaces. It is based on a MySQL Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that supports the back-end User Interface (UI) with create, read, update and delete (CRUD) management functions of a typical RESTful service. Moreover, all the control mechanisms as well as the procedures of authentication, authorization and encryption of the credentials of the certified users are configured through the PHP scripting language and JSON files. The resulting platform achieves maximum adaptability in digital archiving of heterogeneous datasets and has increasing efficiency in representing all types of data supported by 3DHOP.

Multi-Resolution 3D Rendering for High-Performance Web AR

“…The input data are the following four models: (i) Middlebury TempleRing [ 52 ]; (ii) the Human of CoRBS dataset [ 53 ]; (iii) the Anton Memorial of Harvest4D consortium [ 54 ]; and (iv) the Meteora site by the Meteora Project [ 48 ]. Table 1 shows the format, size and geometric attributes of the 3D models used as AR overlays, before and after their conversion into multi-resolution structures.…”

“…It extends the capabilities of existing frameworks such as AR.js and Three.js, integrating them seamlessly to handle a multi-resolution 3D format and enable user-friendly interactions and parameter adjustments in real time. The choice of AR.js is made because the underlying AR library accounts for its compatibility across browsers and devices with WebGL and WebRTC features [ 46 ], while the selection of the Nexus.js algorithm lies in its proven capability to handle arbitrary geometry [ 47 , 48 ], its good compression ratio and its fast decoding (3 M triangles per second with normal and colors in a single thread) even at low-end devices. By comparing some of the aforementioned notable rendering schemes and their respective advantages and limitations with the proposed one, it is shown that the suggested method achieves progressive streaming and the responsive view-dependent visualization of textured high-resolution 3D models of a large size (more than 1 GB) and data volume.…”

5dmeteora Framework: Management and Web Publishing of Cultural Heritage Data

“…The CMS has an easy-to use and responsive Graphical User Interface (GUI) that comprises various 3D and 2D viewports for real-time data preview, along with buttons, lists and other types of inputs for mapping the described operations (Ioannidis et al, 2021). When the admin logins and uploads a 3D file, the list of the available models for editing is updated (Figure 5).…”

Application of Action Camera Video for Fast and Low-Cost Photogrammetric Survey of Cultural Heritage

“…3D digitization is otherwise important to foster accessibility and inclusiveness; in fact, through this process, it is possible to provide virtual access to resources currently inaccessible and offer a support for people with disabilities who visit cultural sites (Scianna and Di Filippo, 2019;Hallot et al, 2021;Agnello et al, 2022). Furthermore, although it cannot prevent risks and deteriorations, it can contribute to the protection of some historical objects (avoiding their direct manipulation) and provides a useful database for heritage monitoring (Nishanbaev, 2020;Ioannidis et al, 2021;Bruno et al, 2022). The great attention to cultural heritage digitization by the scientific community inevitably has led to improvements in technology and methodology.…”