Digital Archives for Intangible Cultural Heritages

Abstract

In this article a topic of digitally archiving intangible cultural heritages which include dance, performing arts as well as cultural event such as festivals. These intangible cultural heritage includes human body motions. As for measuring human body motions, a system called motion capture system has been currently used. Although it is a powerful tool to get precise data about human body motion, it is not necessarily ideal for obtaining data for traditional dance and performing arts. Advantages and disadvantages of these systems have been discussed. Some of the information processing techniques including an analysis of Japanese dance movement and similarity-based retrieval method for body motion data. Lastly, a topic of reproducing a very large cultural event, Gion Festival Float Parade, with virtual reality technology, which currently being developed in the author’s laboratory is presented.