Reconstruction of historical Palestine

Ramzi Hassan

Development and Implementation of Virtual Reality (VR) systems for Documenting Historically Important Landscapes in Palestine. A cooperation project between Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB) and Birzeit University in Palestine.

BACKGROUND
Reconstruction of Historical Palestine is a joint project among historians, planners, architects, engineers, technicians and computer-aided design (CAD) researchers to preserve historical vidences of Palestine by using computer visual simulation. The importance of historical scenes will be revealed by the efforts of integration with digital information and models. The process of modelling and the issues of computer visual simulation in the large-scale historical models will be presented. The visual landscape in Palestine needs attention and action before it is too late. The visual landscape in Palestine is important for reasons of cultural identification, environmental integrity and economic well-being. During recent decades, changes in the landscape of Palestine have occurred rapidly and very dramatically. This makes it necessary to develop methods and techniques for assessing and evaluating environmental changes. The development of computer tools for creating and visualizing virtual worlds has dramatically increased the ability to capture aspects of our environment and communicate them to the general public. The speed and quality of generation of visual imagery, as well as the editing power computers offer, has already dramatically extend the capabilities of practitioners and researchers in representing our environment.

Historical buildings in Birzeit Foto: Ramzi Hassan

HISTORICAL VALIDATION
The monuments of archaeology, history and culture convey spiritual messages of past generations and remain the invaluable wealth of contemporary life. It’s impossible to overestimate their signifi cance to all mankind. A growing number of people regard the historical and cultural heritage as branch of fl ame that must be passed on to further generations. We need to comprehend that every monument or historical evidence is unique. Archaeological sites provide opportunities to study the rich history of the place and shed light on the culture, society and daily life of its inhabitants throughout the centuries. In present conditions the deleterious effects of ecological, social and man-caused nature become worse. It is necessary to change the mentality towards archeological, historical and cultural monuments and landscapes as the common property of the people. The protection of historical places is a national objective but unfortunately it failed to become a priority question in Palestine for the time being. The monuments of the past not only carry a powerful spiritual potential but also promote the development of the tourist infrastructure which, in its turn, insures an additional infl ow of hard currency into the country’s economy. The archeological sites, spreading all over Palestine are standing as reminders and evidence of a long and rich history. Mostly, they are in bad conditions and there is no clear planning strategies to deal with it in a positive way. There is a lack of awareness of the importance of the archaeological sites that lead to this destruction. In addition, there is no mechanism available to convey the importance and the meaning of such historical sites to new generation. As a consequence, a new generation will appear with no feeling for the value to such sites. It is no wonder that in many cases, the discovering of a new archeological site is considered as an embarrassing matter for planning institutions.

Historical site in Birzeit Foto: Ramzi Hassan

TECHNOLOGICAL JUSTIFICATION
Computer visual simulation is applied to architectural design, urban planning, environmental studies, and historical preservation. Computer visual simulation can produce still images or animation based on computer graphics, and the use of it for experiencing spaces or evaluating the quality of spaces becomes easier and more economic than the physical model. In addition, computerized models are used as a platform for environmental and historical research. Substantial studies have indicated that computer-supported modeling and visualization eventually may serve as a common and efficient language, facilitating communication about multifaceted environmental planning issues. In particular, computer animation was found to be a more effective and preferable medium of communication than more established methods, such as paper drawings, when concerning dynamic planning issues. Virtual Reality can then provide planners and people with a visual communication tool, which can help better understanding of the interactions among environmental experience, attributes and characters and hidden information about ancient cities.

OBJECTIVES
This joint research project work will use a digital approach to preserve historical evidences of Palestine. Therefore, the goal is to build a digital model and scenes, which can be used for historical and urban studies. It can be used to represent, analyze, and explore the past, current, and the future status of a place. The digital models can then be used in Virtual Reality visualizations systems to reveal the hidden history of the nation. The Virtual heritage systems can be then installed in historical sites and in museums in order to increase the awareness of the public on the historical dimension. Virtual Reality visualizations can be also placed on the web. The goals can be broken in two levels: technical and empirical goals and results:
• Technical level: The goal of the project on technical level is to develop a VR Unit and implement a case study dealing with historical reconstruction and communicating via the new media. The technical level is the foundation of the questions being asked on the research level.
• Empirical level: With the help of an empirical research approach, the usage of new media shall be tested.
As reflected in the objectives, the project will be build around four main tracks:
• The development of a VR installations: making VR technology affordable and accessible for most academic institutes.
• Integration of VR technology in higher Education • 3D reconstruction of prototype historical site.
• Seeing is understanding: Incorporate VR tools for revealing public awareness for historically important places.

3D virtual model for a histrorical site in Palestine Foto: Ramzi Hassan

EDUCATION AND RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE
The fundamental idea behind the three-dimensional immersive environment is to present students with a perspective image, which changes as the student navigates through his/her proposed design. In VR environment the student feels the experience; not just sees it. The VR environment allows an instructor to walk through a design with his student and critique the design, discuss modifi cations, and leave behind markers with annotations to record specific suggestions for later design modifi cation. A three dimensional model large enough to walk through could boost the student’s ability to conceive three-dimensional spaces and could make it easier for the student to understand something of what the instructor sees in his/her imagination. VR environment also allows experimenting with new instructional concepts that are not currently possible with either traditional or CAD-based computer graphics techniques. The VR environment allow for new research possibilities. Virtual reality provides researchers with new tool for investigating results. Specific applications for the research involve architecture, planning, engineering and scientifi c visualization. Multi-disciplinary research investigations involving the associated human factors issues. For example: Development of intuitive design working environments and improving remote visualization across planners. The emerging technology of virtual reality and immersive techniques will change the way data is viewed and analyzed, as well as the way models will be developed and the results interpreted. CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) is example of immersive virtual environments that will enable researchers to interact with virtual worlds that have been created from observed data or simulations.



This is a 3D virtual model for a histricla site in Birzeit town in Palestine. This model is available at YouTube.com with direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay3aQat0GKQ


REFERENCES:
- Belleman R.G., Stolk B., De Vries R. Immersive Virtual Reality on commodity hardware. Un published paper 2005. Universiteit van Amsterdam. http://staff.science.uva.nl/~robbel/publications/asci2001.pdf
- Viz-tek, MARVIC systems: http://www.viz-tek.com/mavric.htm (accessed: December 5, 2005)
- Hassan R. Computer Visualizations in Planning. Computer techniques for visualization of development scenarios for historically important landscapes and urban spaces. Doctoral Thesis 2002. Department of land use and landscape planning, Agricultural University of Norway.
- VR media Lab, University of Aalborg. http://www.vrmedialab.dk/pr/index_e.html
- Re-Flex: Flexible reality centre. University of Lund. http://www.refl%20ex.lth.se/refl%20ex/
- The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute. http://www.macaulay.ac.uk/landscape/




Updated: 17.10.07
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