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published: 10.11.2024

The integration of 3D point cloud technology has revolutionized cultural heritage conservation. This innovative approach surpasses traditional preservation methods, enabling the creation of highly accurate digital models of historical buildings, artifacts, and landscapes. Such models are crucial in analyzing and preserving heritage sites without physical intrusion, thereby protecting these structures, and saving resources.

The emergence of 3D point clouds in architectural and cultural heritage conservation represents a significant leap in how we safeguard culture and history. It not only improves the precision of restorative efforts but also maintains the integrity of heritage sites for future learning and appreciation, showcasing the profound impact of technology in preserving our cultural legacy. The Pointly services enable scalable automatic classification for these kinds of individual use cases.

Preserving cultural heritage, which includes historical buildings, monuments, and artifacts, is essential for maintaining our collective history and identity. However, this task faces various challenges:

1. Physical Degradation: Centuries-old structures and artifacts are prone to wear and tear, further exacerbated by environmental factors like pollution, humidity, and temperature fluctuations. Natural disasters and wars also pose a significant threat.
2. Urbanization Risks: Modern infrastructure development can lead to the neglect or even demolition of heritage sites, often compounded by a lack of awareness of their cultural significance.

The proper use of scanning and annotation technology plays a critical role in overcoming these obstacles. They enable the creation of accurate, detailed representations of heritage sites, aiding in both documentation and conservation. Key advantages of this technology include:

• Digital Twin Creation: Allows for the monitoring and timely maintenance of heritage structures, identifying deterioration early and prolonging their lifespan.
• Digital Preservation: In cases where physical conservation is unfeasible, digital models provide lasting records, preserving knowledge and beauty for future generations.
• Integration with Digital Tools: Combining 3D point cloud technology with tools like BIM and GIS enhances the planning and accuracy of restoration projects.

Through point cloud segmentation, one is able to cleanly separate objects from each other even within expansive point clouds. At Pointly we support this process with our work in 3D point cloud technology.

A project to preserve cultural heritage that we especially want to mention at this point is Scan UA, a commendable initiative dedicated to scanning and preserving monuments threatened by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Scan UA is an independent project run by volunteers Sergey Revenko and Nikita Solopov. As they dedicate their time to transfer Ukrainian heritage and its destruction into digital models, they depend on donations. The images below show a 3D scan of the Irpin Bridge, which was destroyed in 2022 to halt invading Russian tanks from entering Kyiv. It was later used to evacuate civilians from Irpin to the capital. The first image shows the RGB scan, the second depicts the point cloud with classifications.

Scan UA leverages the Pointly platform to view and classify objects as well as terrain from different types of scans. The automatic classification is then further enhanced by manual classification of specific objects. Through classification, you can quantify the amount of destruction and reconstruct 3D models of the scenes. Pointly can separate the data into powerful layers that the team can use in their work—such as for BIM modeling and analysis by their engineering team.

We are proud to be part of the important work by Scan UA and to support their commitment to raise awareness of the ongoing destruction and to help preserve Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

View 3D models of the projects on their website: https://scanua.com/

Support Scan UA with a donation: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/revenkos

Architectural cultural heritage smoothly goes hand in hand with point cloud classification to create impressive and interactive 3D models of artifacts, buildings, and even landscapes. Get started and upload up to 3 point clouds to test our 3 standard classifiers (ALS, Highway Scans and soon Mobile Mapping) as well as our innovative manual classification and vectorization tools with a Free Account. Got a specific use case and need a more customized solution for your project? Then let us train a Point Cloud Custom Classifier specifically for your individual demands.

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