University of Tokyo faculty gathering photographs to create a 3D digital recreation of Shuri Castle to serve as “tourist attraction until the castle is rebuilt”
The current digital 3D model of Shuri Castle, which will become more complete as additional photographs and videos are submitted. From the OUR Shurijo –Shuri Castle Digital Reconstruction Project homepage
November 12, 2019 Ryukyu Shimpo
Image processing and virtual reality experts are teaming up to form the “OUR Shurijo – Shuri Castle Digital Reconstruction” project, which aims to create a digital reconstruction of the recently burned down Shuri Castle.
The project will collect pictures and videos of the castle from different viewpoints, and create a digital 3D model of the castle using digital modeling technology.
The members of the project are asking for submissions from all over the world. University of Tokyo project lecturer Dr. Rei Kawakami, who is at the center of this project, said, “After completion, we will make it available for the people of Okinawa to use as a digital tourist attraction until the real castle is rebuilt.”
The more pictures and videos they collect, the more detailed the digital model can be, so the project is aiming to collect around 1 million submissions.
According to Dr. Kawakami, a homepage for the website went up November 5, as well as a twitter handle that was started to solicit contributions.
Already pictures of the castle are pouring in from all over the world, and as of November 8 they had already collected 10,000 contributions.
Researchers from abroad are also participating in the initiative, and submissions are coming in not just from Japan, but also the U.S., Europe, and Africa.
Dr. Kawakami is a computer vision expert, researching how to get a computer to understand images.
Having visited Shuri Castle, she said, “The fire was a huge shock. Hearing the news that children could not go to school because of the fire made me feel sad.”
Dr. Kawakami was in Korea for an international conference the day of the fire, October 31, but started the project as soon as she returned to Japan.
The project is not only asking for images, but also information such as when the pictures and videos were taken, and any memories from the people who were there at the time.
The aim is for these memories to pop up when people enter the 3D recreation, something Kawakami has coined “compassionate content.”
You can visit the homepage for the project here: https://www.our-shurijo.org/
(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)
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