y
CIP A 2003 XIX 11 ' International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalya, Turkey
19
GLOBE
sn created in 1492,
rica by Christopher
ational Museum in
by the public for
globe’s 500th anni-
me suitable method
of this documenta-
:ss to the globe for
for historians and
The I.P.F. (Dorffner, 1996) has taken 34 photographs
using a large format glass plate camera. These photo
graphs have been scanned, and applying these digitized
images a surface model of the globe has been derived.
Given these prerequisites, the digital Behaim Globe was
computed (Figure 2). The digital Behaim Globe allows
for interactively rotation, shifting, zooming, and pros
pecting it in three-dimensions. It also allows for measur
ing 3D co-ordinates of points on its surface - with no
need to access the original. These capabilities are valu
able for teaching geography in the schools. Historians
and geographers, but also private amateurs, can choose of
different resolution levels fitting best their individual
purposes - e.g. of analysis. Of special interest has been -
and still is - the integration of current geographical in
formation with the historical contents of the Behaim
Globe.
Based on those parts of the original painting with the
colors conserved best, colors for the rest of the globe’s
surface have been restored - and archived for the future.
Financial Statement: This is a prominent example of
presenting and thus documenting valuable pieces of Art
and of History on their major anniversaries. Such occa
sions often allow for special public or private financing.
Technical Statement and Keywords: A special feature
is the application of a non-Cartesian reference co
ordinate system, often necessary for documenting curved
surfaces - in this case the surface of a sphere. ‘Presenta
tion in Internet’, ‘Digital color conservation’.
Similar techniques have been applied in another project
to the frescos of the cupola in the Hagia Sofia (Dorffner
et al., 2000).
Figure 3: : The largest statue of the Buddha in Bamiyan,
55 m high
5. DESTROYING THE BUDDHA STATUES OF
BAMIYAN
From the point of view of photogrammetry, the home-
page of the ETH Zürich (the Federal University of Tech
nology, Zurich) is of special interest; (Gruen/Remondino,
2002). It is the main source of the following slightly
modified citations:
“Strategically situated in a central location for travelers
from North and South and East and West, Bamiyan was a
common meeting place for many ancient cultures. And
for 500 years, Bamiyan valley was one of the major
Buddhist centers from the second century up to the time
that Islam entered the valley in the ninth century. All
along the valley, three big statues and many caves were
carved out from the hill. The caves are full of paintings
and were carved in the same period as the statues; see
Figure 3.
On Monday, March 12, 2001, the Director General of
UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Cultural
Organization), Koichiro Matsuura said in a statement
released at the UN Cultural Organization’s Paris head
quarters that the UN Envoy to Afghanistan has confirmed
that the ancient Buddha statues at Bamiyan have been
destroyed by the ruling Taliban militia. This cultural
heritage goes back over two thousand years and was
protected by UNESCO.”
The Afghanistan Institute & Museum, Bubendorf (Swit
zerland), and the New7Wonders Society & Foundation,
Zürich (Switzerland), have launched a campaign to re
construct the Buddha statues at original shape, size and
place. Armin Grün's group (ETH Zürich) has volunteered
to perform the required computer reconstruction, which
serves as a basis for the physical one. The 3D reconstruc
tion of the original Buddha will be in particular using
metric photographs taken in 1970 by Prof. Robert Kostka,
Technical University of Graz, Austria.
The reconstruction process consists of
• scanning the high resolution photographs;
• manual measurements on the metric images;
• image matching to extract a 3D point cloud;
• point cloud editing and surface triangulation;
• texture mapping and Visualization.
Technical Statement: The manual measurement on
metric stereo images for physical reconstruction of stat
ues and of similar objects is still the adequate method of
image compilation. Image matching is a valuable addi
tional method in cases with flat surfaces and rich image
texture.
Financial Statement: To take good metric photographs
is very cheap 1 , and the expensive restitution of them can
be done on demand. For highly valuable pieces of art and
historical monuments destroyed, fundraising for the
compilation needed to restore them is usually successful.
1 For simple photogrammetric documentation the CIPA 3x3
rules (Waldhausl et al., 1994) are useful.
