Virtual technology restores grandeur of Old Summer Palace
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E-mail CNTV, October 27, 2012
152 years ago, foreign invaders looted Beijing's Yuanmingyuan Garden, or the Old Summer Palace. Since then, the Old Summer Palace has been in a state of dilapidation and disrepair.
Thanks to virtual technology, the past glory of the imperial garden is being restored. Engineers from Tsinghua University are making it happen.
The ruined imperial garden is coming back to life... A virtual reconstruction of Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace, enables visitors to see what it looked like before it fell to ruin.
The palace's Bilan Bridge used to be an elegant stone archway over a flowing stream. However, after the palace was destroyed, the Bridge was reduced to a field of rubble.
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| 152 years ago, foreign invaders looted Beijing's Yuanmingyuan Garden, or the Old Summer Palace. Since then, the Old Summer Palace has been in a state of dilapidation and disrepair. |
Using laser scan technology, researchers have been able to retrieve the appearance and outline of each stone, creating a virtual image of the bridge's original structure. Xiao Jinliang is a chief engineer at the Culture Heritage Conservation Center of Tsinghua University.
Xiao Jinliang, chief engineer, said, "Traces are left when one stone interlocks with another. Based on this, we can determine which stone stands next to which, and their original positions. After considerable analysis, we can figure out the curve of the bridge precisely."
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| 152 years ago, foreign invaders looted Beijing's Yuanmingyuan Garden, or the Old Summer Palace. Since then, the Old Summer Palace has been in a state of dilapidation and disrepair. |
The same method can be used to virtually reconstruct the original layout of the entire palace, which has nearly 100 scenic zones. But it is no easy job.
According to specialists, the volume of data needed for virtual restoration is massive. The amount of information needed to reconstruct each scenic zone of the palace, from each stone in each house to the general layout of houses and halls, is the same as the amount of information needed for an entire city in modern GPS-type navigation systems.
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| 152 years ago, foreign invaders looted Beijing's Yuanmingyuan Garden, or the Old Summer Palace. Since then, the Old Summer Palace has been in a state of dilapidation and disrepair. |
Architect He Yan said, "After gathering the mass models, the problem of ordering them within the computer system occurs, and it takes a while to organize the entire models. There are a lot of challenges in the computing and rendering power of our virtual model system."
The idea of restoring the Old Summer Palace with virtual mapping technology came about as early as 2002. After 10 years of efforts, about one third of the scenic spots have been restored to their past glory in virtual models. Visitors can check out the virtual glimpse online. Experts are also planning to create a smartphone App.
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| 152 years ago, foreign invaders looted Beijing's Yuanmingyuan Garden, or the Old Summer Palace. Since then, the Old Summer Palace has been in a state of dilapidation and disrepair. |
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