Automatic 3D Modeling and Reconstruction of Cultural Heritage Sites from Twitter Images

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for leveraging the abundance of images posted on social media like Twitter for large scale 3D reconstruction of cultural heritage landmarks. Twitter allows users to post short messages, including photos, describing a plethora of activities or events, e.g., tweets are used by travelers on vacation, capturing images from various cultural heritage assets. As such, a great number of images are available online, able to drive a successful 3D reconstruction process. However, reconstruction of any asset, based on images mined from Twitter, presents several challenges. There are three main steps that have to be considered: (i) tweets’ content identification, (ii) image retrieval and filtering, and (iii) 3D reconstruction. The proposed approach first extracts key events from unstructured tweet messages and then identifies cultural activities and landmarks. The second stage is the application of a content-based filtering method so that only a small but representative portion of cultural images are selected to support fast 3D reconstruction. The proposed methods are experimentally evaluated using real-world data and comparisons verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Web Communication: A Content Analysis of Green Hosting Companies

“…These companies, contrary to those that considered green hosting as a supplementary service, promoted a different culture that included some of the components of sustainable development, which is also associated with the dissemination of CH (Cultural heritage) and societal traditions [15]. Furthermore, this research seems to support the arguments that eventually, the preservation or the improvement of traditions could benefit society in the future years, changing even the working conditions in a company [17]. Lastly, the promotion of green hosting seems to be an efficient digital marketing approach, as the Millennials prefer "buying from companies that help people, communities, and the environment" ([59] p. 87).…”

“…The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has also pointed out that CH is not only the physical artifacts that are passed down from one generation to the other but also the process of preserving and improving these traditions that will benefit society in the future years. Although it may not seem significant, these traditions can positively influence employment, social cohesion, employment, and even new skills to promote sustainability and more sustainable societal and economic models [17].…”

Semantic Crowdsourcing of Soundscapes Heritage: A Mojo Model for Data-Driven Storytelling

“…Recognizing the increasing need to support novel means for integrating data visualization into narrative stories, featured cultural and audiovisual heritage projects deploy state-of-the-art technologies to capture, manage, and publish CH data through rich-media storytelling experiences [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Among others, related services or cultural activities (tomorrow's heritage) include tourist promotion and environmental preservation/awareness for landscapes and intangible artifacts [1][2][3], sites modeling/reconstruction and content restoration/documentation [4,5], and multi-disciplinary collaborations in research and education innovations [6][7][8][9]. Audiovisual and soundscape-related heritage initiatives also emerge, focusing on historical sound records and landscapes preserved, re-created, and reproduced as means of intangible CH expressions [25][26][27][28][29].…”

“…A linked popular research topic that significantly propelled multidisciplinary scientific projects and associated knowledge gain is the way of learning by example, through the Machine and Deep Learning (ML/DL) paradigms. Both the audio semantics and the CH domains have also benefited the made breakthroughs and progress [4][5][6][7][13][14][15][16][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]. Hence, sound and acoustic scene recordings can be processed to provide event detection and recognition outcomes, offering pattern-related metadata, content-based description, and management automation (i.e., retrieval, summarization/highlighting, etc.).…”

“…These services can be deployed at the change of attending a physical environment with cultural value for augmenting the whole experience (before, during, and after the visit) or general infotainment activities. Apart from the cases of digital museums and exhibitions concerning artworks, historical buildings, monuments, and other cultural items, intangible CH has flourished through the processes of information capturing, documentation, and digital synthesis of CH storytelling experiences [1][2][3][4][5][6][7].…”