The great buddha project: modeling cultural heritage for VR systems through observation

This paper overviews our research on digitalpreservation of cultural assets and digital restoration oftheir original appearance. Geometric models are digitallyachieved through a pipeline consisting of scanning,registering and merging multiple range images. We havedeveloped a robust simultaneous registration method andan efficient and robust voxel-based integration method. Onthe geometric models created, we have to align textureimages acquired from a color camera. We have developedtwo texture mapping methods. In an attempt to restore theoriginal appearance of historical heritage objects, we havesynthesized several buildings and statues using scanneddata and literature survey with advice from experts.