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August 24, 2005
Great Buddha Virtual Reality Project
Katsushi Ikeuchi's Digital Archive Project seeks to digitally reconstruct and preserve for posterity the original states of Buddhist and Hindu carvings and other artifacts throughout Asia. In Japane, the project scanned the Great Buddha (Toudaiji, Nara).
The project scanned the buddha from many directions with 3D laser scanner, aligned these range data, and merged them into one 3D mesh model. In addition, they applied some digital restoration - at the time when the buddha was built, it is considered to be covered by gold leaf and settled in daibutsu-den building. Thus, the generated CG image of the buddha represents it at the time it was built.
The Great Buddha Project made the news recently when Microsoft named Katsushi Iketsushi the head of its Institute for Japanese Academic Research Collaboration.
Sources:
Robert Buderi, Microsoft's Emissary in Japan, Technology Review, September 2005. http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/09/issue/forward_microsoft.asp
Katsushi Ikeuchi, Great Buddha Project. http://www.cvl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~miyazaki/publish/buddhae.html
Posted by sjc at August 24, 2005 2:06 PM
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