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RECONSTRUCTION AND VISUALIZATION OF “VIRTUAL TIME-SPACE OF KYOTO,”
A 4D-GIS OF THE CITY
Y. Takase ^ *, K. Yano?, N. Kawahara*, S. Koga", T. Nakaya , T. Kawasumi * Y. ]soda?, M. Inoue", D. Kawahara*, S. Iwakiri *
? Ritsumeikan University, 56-1, Tojiin-kitamachi, Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan
- (takase@gr., (yano, kawahara, koga, nakaya, kawasumi)@It, isoda@fc., (gr014008, 1g004965, 1g001972)@lt.)
ritsumei.ac.jp
® CAD Center Corporation, 23-1, Sakamachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan — takase@cadcenter.co.jp
Commission V, WG V/6
KEY WORDS: Visualization, Reconstruction, GIS, City, LIDAR, Virtual Reality, Computer Graphics, Database
ABSTRACT:
The research aims at reconstruction and visualization of “Virtual Time-Space of Kyoto,” which provides Kyoto’s 3D-GIS starting
from the present going back to the past through 20" to 17" century, and finally Heian period ( 12% to 8% century, when a capital was
founded in Kyoto), based on 3D city model of present Kyoto, and available historical documents and information, employing new
visualization technologies including virtual reality (VR). The research has introduced 3D city model of present Kyoto, which has
been automatically generated by recently developed software, using LIDAR data, 2D digital map, and aerial photograph. There
remain a lot of Kyo-machiyas (traditional townhouse in Kyoto, machiya hereafter), temples, shrines and modern heritage buildings
in Kyoto because it eluded damage from World War II. At present, highly efficient GIS and VR technologies have been applied
throughout the research; (a) to store locations and attributes of presently existing buildings including machiyas, shrines, temples and
modern heritage buildings as a database; (b) to archive and geo-reference materials including Yamahokos (floats) of the Gion
Festival, as well as old cadastral maps, street photos and aerial photos; and (c) to visualize urban landscape changes through times
using aforementioned materials.
1. INTRODUCTION
Kyoto, an old capital of Japan which was founded 1,200 years
ago and eluded damage from World War II, retains a great
number of historical architecture such as temples, shrines,
machiyas (traditional townhouses) and modern heritage
buildings.
The research aims at reconstruction and visualization of
“Virtual Time-Space of Kyoto,” which provides Kyoto’s 3D-
GIS starting from the present Kyoto, based on automatically
generated 3D city model, going back to the past, including
those soon after and before World War II, Taisho and Meiji eras
(early 20" to late 19" century) Edo era (late 19% to 17*
century), and finally up to Heian era (12^ to the end of g^
century). And the research also aims at making “Virtual Time-
Space of Kyoto" open to the public through VR and Web3D.
The paper reports on on-going research project of "Virtual
Time-Space of Kyoto," which is a part of “Kyoto Art
Entertainment Innovation Research” in Ritsumeikan University,
a 21" Century COE (Center of Excellence) project funded by
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT) of Japan during the period from 2002 to 2006. "Kyoto
Art Entertainment Innovation Research” aims at an
interdisciplinary research on Kyoto as Japanese cultural center,
gathering more than 30 researchers in varieties of fields
including the humanities such as history, archaeology,
geography and literature, as well as information science such as
computer graphics (CG), VR, internet, image processing and
artificial intelligence.
2. AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF 3D CITY MODELS
AND VR APPLICATIONS
Traditional modeling method of 3D city models had required
enormous amount of time-consuming manual works. Ordinary
modeling method of 3D city used to be:
1. Scan paper map and get digital image,
2. Trace digital image of map with 3D CAD software
resulting in 2D data of buildings outlines,
3. Manually make 3D models of buildings with 3D CAD by
extruding 2D outlines to building height, and/or modeling
manually detailed 3D geometry referring to drawings and
photographs also with 3D CAD.
Especially, manual modeling with 3D CAD software was most
time-consuming and required operators’ expertise. Therefore
the method was not applicable for production of great area of
city model in a short period of time.
The system development of automatic generation of 3D city
model by CAD Center Corporation aimed great saving of
production time. The new method has realized surprising
reduction of time in production of 3D city model through :
automatic generation programs. Moreover, efficiency in texture
mapping as well as quality and accuracy of 3D city model has
been greatly improved. And presently, geometry model of all
major cities of Japan, which is called MAP CUBE, is available
on the market.
“Virtual Time-Space of Kyoto" has employed MAP CUBE of
Kyoto as the platform of its 3D-GIS. It also has introduced
recently developed VR viewer software named “UrbanViewer”
developed also by CAD Center Corporation.
