A DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF BOROBUDUR BASED ON 3D POINT CLOUDS

Abstract

Three-dimensional point clouds are becoming popular representations for digital archives of cultural heritage sites. The Borobudur Temple, located in Central Java, Indonesia, was built in the 8th century. Borobudur is considered one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world and was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We are developing a virtual reality system as a digital archive of the Borobudur Temple. This research is a collaboration between Ritsumeikan University, Japan, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), and the Borobudur Conservation Office, Indonesia. In our VR system, the following three data sources are integrated to form a 3D point cloud: (1) a 3D point cloud of the overall shape of the temple acquired by photogrammetry using a camera carried by a UAV, (2) a 3D point cloud obtained from precise photogrammetric measurements of selected parts of the temple building, and (3) 3D data of the hidden relief panels recovered from the archived 2D monocular photos using deep learning. Our VR system supports both the first-person view and the bird’s eye view. The first-person view allows immersive observation and appreciation of the cultural heritage. The bird’s eye view is useful for understanding the whole picture. A user can easily switch between the two views by using a user-friendly VR user interface constructed by a 3D game engine.