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Hongo, Kenji 
  
2 SYSTEM DESIGN 
2.1 User requirements 
User requests to an information management system for restoration of cultural heritages were summarized as follows: 
(1) A system should be operated easily by an amateur. 
There are neither enough photogrammetrist nor image processing specialist for restoration of cultural heritages. On 
the other hand, researchers or technicians engaged in restoration of cultural heritages are not used to 
photogrammetry nor image processing. A system should be operated easily by a restoration researcher or technician 
who is neither photogrammetrist nor image processing specialist. 
(2) Hardware of a system should be compact and its cost should be low. 
A conventional method by analog/analytical photogrammetry needs expensive and somewhat large-scale 
instruments such as metric cameras and/or analytical plotters. On the other hand a lot of heritage restoration projects 
in the world are restricted in project budgets for recording of current statuses and restoration histories. Consequently 
hardware of a system should be compact and the cost of a system should be low. Of course a system should provide 
precise information enough to preserve or restore old cultural heritages. 
(3) A system should be able to manage a great deal and diverse information. 
In order to preserve or restore old cultural heritages properly it is necessary to manage a great deal and diverse 
information about the object. A great deal of information to be managed has been or will be gathered in the form of 
documents, drawings and images. Some of them are in analog form and the other are in digital form. A system 
should be able to manage such a great deal and diverse information. 
2.2 Features of the system 
We have designed a system grounded on above mentioned user requests. Our system is based on digital 
photogrammetry, image processing and GIS technologies. Digital still cameras acquire fundamental data of the system. 
A personal computer (PC) creates digital ortho-images from images acquired by digital still cameras. Information 
management subsystem running on a PC manages information about current status such as healthiness and/or damages, 
and preservation or restoration records. And furthermore, the system assists a restoration researcher or technician to 
make a preservation or restoration plan. 
Major features of our system are as follows: 
(1) Easy operation 
The major advantage of our system is that it is easy for a nonprofessional to operate it. Short-period training makes a 
restoration researcher or technician without photogrammetric or image processing know-how to operate the system. 
And there is no need for ground survey of control points. Main manual operations of the system are image 
acquisition by digital still cameras and simple operations of a PC. 
(2) Small scale and low cost hardware 
Recent advancement of digital image processing technology makes it possible to obtain almost equal results by 
small scale and low cost hardware designed for nonprofessional purposes to some obtained by conventional 
analog/analytical photogrammetric instruments. We adopted a PC-controllable digital still camera that is not 
designed for photogrammetry in place of a metric camera, and a PC for multi-purpose in place of an analytical 
plotter. 
(3) Integrated information management system based on digital ortho-images 
All information is managed by database management system (DBMS) based on digital ortho-images. An operator of 
the system inputs information about damages of the object and preservation or restoration histories viewing a digital 
orth-image shown on a PC display. This input information is stored into a database (DB) with reference to the 
position on the ortho-image. 
(4) Two-stage image acquisition 
Spatial resolution of low-price digital still cameras for nonprofessional use was worse than one of analog cameras 
last year when we designed the system. Accordingly, we adopted two-stage image acquisition method to ensure 
information precise enough to preserve or restore old cultural heritages. See below 2.3 for further details. 
  
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B5. Amsterdam 2000. 373