Heritage Preservation A Computational Approach

This book presents a unique guide to heritage preservation problems and the corresponding state-of-the-art digital techniques to achieve their plausible solutions. It covers various methods, ranging from data acquisition and digital imaging to computational methods for reconstructing the original (pre-damaged) appearance of heritage artefacts.

The case studies presented here are mostly drawn from India’s tangible and non-tangible heritage, which is very rich and multi-dimensional. The contributing authors have been working in their respective fields for years and present their methods so lucidly that they can be easily reproduced and implemented by general practitioners of heritage curation. The preservation methods, reconstruction methods, and corresponding results are all illustrated with a wealth of colour figures and images.

The book consists of sixteen chapters that are divided into five broad sections, namely (i) Digital System for Heritage Preservation,(ii) Signal and Image Processing, (iii) Audio and Video Processing, (iv) Image and Video Database, and (v) Architectural Modelling and Visualization. The first section presents various state-of-the-art tools and technologies for data acquisition including an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) annotation tool and a specialized imaging system for generating the realistic visual forms of the artefacts. Numerous useful methods and algorithms for processing vocal, visual and tactile signals related to heritage preservation are presented in the second and third sections. In turn, the fourth section provides two important image and video databases, catering to members of the computer vision community with an interest in the domain of digital heritage. Finally, examples of reconstructing ruined monuments on the basis of historic documents are presented in the fifth section. In essence, this book offers a pragmatic appraisal of the uses of digital technology in the various aspects of preservation of tangible and intangible heritages. 

Bhabatosh Chanda is a Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India. His research interests include image and video processing, pattern recognition, computer vision and mathematical morphology. He has published more than 200 articles in refereed journals and conferences, authored two books and edited five books. He received the Indian National Science Academy 'Young Scientist Medal' in 1989, the Institution of Engineers (India) 'Computer Engineering Division Medal' in 1998, the 'Vikram Sarabhai Research Award in 2002 and the IETE-Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold medal in 2007. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (FIETE), National Academy of Science, India (FNASc.), Indian National Academy of Engineering (FNAE), and the International Association of Pattern Recognition (FIAPR). 

Subhasis Chaudhuri holds the KN Bajaj Chair Professorship at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and is a J.C. Bose national fellow. He works in the area of image processing, computer vision and haptics. He has published 300 papers in various journals and conferences, as well as 6 monographs in his area of research. He has also served on the editorial board of several international journals, including IEEE T-PAMI and IJCV. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Science Academies in India. 

Santanu Chaudhury is currently the Director of the CSIR-CEERI Pilani and a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi). He was also the Dean of Undergraduate Studies at IIT Delhi. He was Schlumberger as well as Dhananjoy Chair Professor at IIT Delhi. His research interests are in the areas of computer vision, robotics, embedded systems and machine learning. He has published more than 250 research papers in international journals and conference proceedings and a number of patents. He has been on the programme committee of a number of international conferences like ICCV, ACCV, ICPR, ICVGIP, and PReMI. He was awarded the INSA medal for young scientists in 1993 and received the CDAC-ACCS award for his scientific achievements in 2012. He is a fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, India and the International Association of Pattern Recognition.