Heritage3D: digital documentation of cultural heritage

Venue of the travelling exhibition: Szentendre, Ferenczy Museum (Pajor-mansion), Barcsay-Hall
Opening ceremony: On 23 September 2014 at 17:00, as an event of the Cultural Heritage Days

Preservation, digital documentation, spectacular presentation of Hungary’s incredibly rich cultural heritage is in our common interest. In the course of the several years long SziMe3D AR project, we put the latest 3D technologies to the service of the 3D digital preservation of domestic monuments and artefacts of national importance. In the field of the preservation of cultural heritage, the HUMANsoft Ltd. carries on the SziMe3D AR project, which it started, in the framework of the Mensor3D Ltd. founded by it, which is also the site director of the travelling exhibition in Szentendre.

In the project, we strived to utilize our deliverables for museum, tourism and educational purposes. With the creation of the 3D models models of the built heritage and the artefacts, at the same time, presentation of the information carried by the different models for different purposes also became possible. The researchers, educators, students, tourists and cyberspace roamers would like to get and see different things from the opportunities offered by modern computer technologies.

We considered especially important to digitize the endangered cultural heritage, little known to the general public or even important mainly for local communities. The most advanced 3D contents preserve the memories with higher quality than ever before, they contribute to a better knowledge and understanding, and help to manage them. They timely document their condition for future generations moreover, our cultural heritage and national memorial places are also made known to the wider outside world.
The travelling exhibition entitled HERITAGE3D invites you to an unusual experience. It offers a kind of virtual time travel to the fabulously wealthy Middle Ages, it shows how digital technologies can be adjusted in the service of science and culture. The exhibition, unique in Hungary, offers an exceptionally rich collection of art treasures and monuments, as well as three-dimensional imaging technologies satisfying the visual demands of today’s audience.

The master builders of virtual reality of the SziMe3D project revive the hitherto unseen: the reconstructions based on the spatial and object scanner surveys bring to life the now destroyed once magnificent structures (e.g. medieval Dome church of Pécs, the former vault of Virgin Mary Provost of Székesfehérvár, the castle of Vitány or Szigliget).
Aerial photographs displayed on the 3D screens taken by an octocopter take the viewers to different locations, showing the results of the surveys made by spatial laser scanner, then the finished model and the reconstruction.

Thanks to the Leapmotion technology, using a virtual mouse visitors can explore such as a scene of excavations, learn about the archaeologists’ work (e.g. excavations of the Renaissance fortress in Győr or the medieval church and glass-manufacturing workshop in Pomáz).
With help of the projectors the completed models are reborn in space (e.g. Anjou stove of Visegrád, the Gertrude tomb of Pilis, the Porta Speciosa of Pannonhalma or certain sculpture findings of the Castle of Buda) and reconstructed arches rise to heights (e.g. Franciscan monastery of Visegrád or the Cathedral of Pécs).
With the help of the touch screens not only artefacts come to life and can be “walked around”, but the exhibition also conveys scientific discoveries: using the text content the young and old alike can expand their knowledge for example about the car model of Budakalász, the mug of Budakalász, the findings of the grave in Tarpa or the findings of the excavation in Bugacmonostor.

You may peek behind the scenes: in addition to viewing the summary werkfilm about the project’s work, on the organized open days professionals can help visitors discover by themselves the use of three-dimensional spatial and object scanners, learn about the various computer programs and applications, as well as the challenges of making constructions.