Attempts to 3D Modelling of World Heritages

Abstract

　I have printed out models of the world heritages in Sri Lanka with a 3D printer by using the ALOS global digital surface model (DSM) "ALOS World 3D – 30m. Noting that Sri Lanka under such remarkable economic and social development also has many historical and cultural sites, we explored the feasibility of modelling the world heritages by using this data. The ALOS global digital surface model is open to the public at free by JAXA for the sake of the scientific research fields and utilization of the geospatial information. This is a data set of 30m (1arcese) resolution of the global digital surface model (DSM) by the Panchromatic Remote-sensing Instrument for Stereo Mapping (PRISM) mounted on the advanced land observing satellite "ALOS". This data set was created based on the DSM data set (5m resolution) of the "world digital 3D topographic data", which has the world best accuracy at present as a global-size elevation dataset. This data in the form of TIFF images is converted from the 2D images to 3D STL data for 3D printers by a program. In doing this, firstly, the portions necessary for the world heritages are extracted from the TIFF images stored at 3600× 3600pixels with 16 bits. Then, the extracted images are converted into the STL data, which is then printed out by the 3D printer. The output data is exhibited and released on Web.