Metaverse in Heritage Conservation Evaluation “Using Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Techniques to Evaluate Preservation Quality”

Abstract

The main problem facing the preservation of Egyptian antiquities, is the difficulty of moving an archaeological team of international experts and participants from foreign countries with the Egyptian teams together to inspect a specific antiquity in the western bank in Luxor, for example, causes the lack of periodic follow-up of antiquities and the lack of restoration quality assurance, which ultimately leads to bad results and sometimes having to remove the wrong repairs and do the restoration again. Also, Lack of funding is a serious problem facing the preservation of Egyptian antiquities, which leads to the poor architectural condition of these monuments. The Researcher suggests using the Metaverse concept in reviewing the proposals for restoration projects in the Metaverse environment, before actually carrying out the restoration process. And reviewing the restoration projects that have already been completed to ensure that it is compatible with the proposals specified in the plan before. This is done by the use of Metaverse Virtual Environment & Fully Immersive Virtual Reality technique in a mechanism that tracks the regular monument deterioration, allowing for conservation in sufficient time. Furthermore, this technique is useful for assessing the quality of the conservation process. That would be achieved by building a fully immersive 3D virtual model before and after the preservation process by comparing the changes that made to the monument. That method facilitates a good monitoring for the monument over time as well, and documenting that monument in detail. The practical part of this study describes 2 case studies that were actually carried out under the supervision of the researcher. In this study, two copies of virtual models were created for “PANEHSY” tomb (Mataria, Cairo). The first copy is based on images taken for the tomb on the day of its discovery. The second was built based on the images of the tomb after the conservation and restoration project. By applying the suggested method, the changes that occur to the tomb’s drawings and ornaments were clearly observed (some defects in the colors of the drawings, and some differences in the thickness of the welds between the stones). The second case study is from the ottoman period; “ABEDY BEK RWEESH” Mosque (Nile Cornish, Masr ElKadema, Cairo), we use the same technique to compare the two copies and determine how restoration process succeed after restoration project (3 Column crowns were replaced, and minarets stairs were fell down).