Public presentation of Japanese historic sites using 3D Tiled Display Wall

This paper reports our experiment on public presentation of a 3D reconstruction of cultural heritage not in a museum but at an ICT event for general public. Iwayayama Tumulus, a national historic site located in Asuka Village, Japan, is a two-layer square tumulus was selected for 3D scanning and modeling for presentation. We conducted 3D laser scanning of the stone chamber and the mound using two kind of scanners: Leica´s Scan Station 2 and FARO´s Focus3D. From the point cloud data, we made a hypothetical 3D CG model as the most part of the surface of the mound was lost. Although it is rare case that 3D CG models of archaeological sites are used in an exhibition in Japan, we showed the 3D model of Iwayayama Tumulus at an ICT event for general public using the 3D Tiled Display Wall system, called NexCAVE, which we developed. The NexCAVE system composed of 10 3D displays allows users to interact with the 3D model in an immersive way. During the event, from children to the elderly enjoyed virtual walkthrough controlling the scene by their head movement and a controller. This experiment showed the importance of displaying research results in a more casual way than at museum exhibition for promoting cultural heritage. We are planning to improve the user interface of the system and to show other cultural heritage on that system.