Contemporary Digital Technologies at the Service of Cultural Heritage

Nowadays, humanity feels obliged to maintain cultural heritage for our future generations. To that end, numerous experts are contributing. Contemporary technological advances, i.e. digital achievements, have helped a lot to this end. In this paper, these technological advances are briefly presented and explained. It is attempted to show how these advances may help cultural heritage if applied correctly and wisely. The argument is not how they will replace traditional documentation or conservation methods, but how they will support, enhance and supplement them for achieving the desired result with sensitivity and knowledge. The available digital documentation techniques are described along with the contemporary nondestructive techniques for cultural heritage pathology diagnosis and conservation. Their advantages are investigated along with their implementation actions. These techniques include image-based methodologies for producing three-dimensional models of which traditional two-dimensional products may be extracted, laser scanning techniques to acquire directly three-dimensional information from the object, nondestructive techniques in order to diagnose pathology problems, etc. In order to highlight these techniques, several examples are presented. The alternative uses of the contemporary digital techniques are highlighted through these examples. Among others, the following applications will be presented: The virtual restoration of a collapsed stone bridge, the virtual restoration of a monument exposed to the weather conditions and the development of a virtual museum are presented. Finally, a future outlook is attempted, in order to envisage the path that the implementation of these technological advances will lead the worldwide effort to document and preserve our cultural heritage.