Wu Jian, director of the Protection Research Department of Dunhuang Research Institute, recently accepted an exclusive interview with reporters from China News Service and Zhongxin. com, saying that the first national key research and development project “Research and Development of Key Technologies for Digital Restoration of Silk Road Cultural Relics” aimed at related cultural relics such as cave temples and large sites in China section of the Silk Road has completed the preliminary basic research, and developed a prototype of two-dimensional images, sculptures and three-dimensional data acquisition devices for cave temple murals, and other related research tasks are being carried out in an orderly manner as planned.
The project lasted for three years, led by Dunhuang Research Institute, and cooperated with domestic universities such as Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and Wuhan University, as well as cultural and cultural institutions along the Silk Road, which was the key special project of the national key R&D plan “Monitoring, Early Warning and Prevention of Major Natural Disasters” in 2020.
Wu Jian said that the purpose of this project is to put forward the overall evaluation method and complete digital solutions for digital restoration technology of Silk Road cultural relics, to speed up the rescue technology protection of comprehensive information of Silk Road cultural heritage, to restore and virtually present cultural relics through specific means, to expand the application scope of digital achievements, and to help spread the Silk Road culture.
Since 1990s, Dunhuang Research Institute has been researching and exploring the technology and method of digitally recording precious Dunhuang murals. At present, the digital collection of 278 precious caves in Mogao Grottoes has been completed. In 2016, the “Digital Dunhuang Resource Library” was officially launched, and a number of digital Dunhuang series exhibitions were held at home and abroad by making full use of digital resources. Launched the “Cloud Tour Dunhuang” applet on the Internet, and cooperated with Huawei to launch the “Flying Tour Line” with the integration of reality and reality.
“Science and technology empower cultural relics protection to become an increasingly important means. Without the application of high technology, cultural relics protection cannot go today.” Wu Jian said that more than 70 years of protection and management practice in the Mogao Grottoes proved that we should fully rely on scientific principles and technical means. Through exploration, the Mogao Grottoes have their own digital standards and processes, but it is not suitable for all other grottoes, cultural relics and cultural heritage, and needs one-on-one specific research, including research equipment, methods, software and hardware, which need to be integrated urgently.
Study the high-fidelity digitization of different types of cultural relics on Silk Road, and the restoration of original large and equal-scale entities; Concise integration of various technologies to solve the digital restoration method of silk road related cultural relics has become a key scientific problem to be solved urgently in this research project.
“There are many kinds of cultural relics involved, and data collection is difficult.” Wu Jian said that there are typical cave temples such as Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Kizil Grottoes in Xinjiang and Longmen Grottoes in Henan, as well as immovable cultural relics such as tombs, the Great Wall and ancient buildings; At the same time, it also studies the digital restoration of movable cultural relics such as cultural relics, pottery, calligraphy and painting, silk painting and so on.
In addition, most of the immovable cultural relics involved in this project are exposed outdoors, or in remote places away from the city, where they encounter sandstorms and other poles..The weather is also common. “A large number of outdoor collection tasks, how to ensure the safety of cultural relics, equipment and researchers, and how to achieve early warning and protection are also one of the difficulties.” Wu Jian said.
The project has completed the development of the prototype of the two-dimensional image acquisition device for cave temple murals, sculptures and large sites, tested and improved the equipment and methods for the two-dimensional image acquisition of murals, and carried out research tasks such as the application practice of extremely high environment, extreme climate and three-dimensional reconstruction of cultural relics in the collection, which will be applied and demonstrated in cultural heritage management units along the Silk Road.
“Digitalization has become an important way and part of cultural heritage protection.” Wu Jian said that the project will effectively solve the problem of digital protection and restoration of related cultural relics along the Silk Road, form a huge number of digital files, and achieve the purpose of permanent preservation and sustainable utilization; The application of project research and achievements not only cultivates digital talents, but also meets people’s spiritual needs. The research results can also be widely used in the implementation of digital protection projects, and the results of the projects form new digital assets, which can be continuously transformed and utilized to help the construction of local cultural tourism.
The project also innovatively develops a complete set of high-precision, fast, convenient and efficient digital collection equipment for the first time, completely collects high-quality digital data of Silk Road cultural relics, comprehensively promotes the protection, research and application of Silk Road and digitalization, and promotes the coordinated development of digital cultural heritage. Greatly improve the efficiency and quality of digital image mosaic and three-dimensional reconstruction of silk road related cultural relics.
Wu Jian said that based on the theory of multidisciplinary integration of big data and artificial intelligence, the project will also develop a cultural relic data processing cloud service platform for intelligent dispatching of Silk Road-related heritage units for the first time, so as to avoid repeated investment in digital hardware and software and solve the problem of lack of technical talents, funds and equipment for Silk Road heritage management units.
After more than 70 years of arduous exploration, the protection team of Dunhuang Research Institute has developed from the original “four-person protection group” to more than 200 people, including the professional protection team of cultural relics ontology protection, digital protection and preventive protection. It has become the largest cultural relics protection team integrating research, design and construction in China. At present, the cultural relics protection model of “China Characteristics and Dunhuang Experience”, represented by Dunhuang Grottoes, has basically taken shape, and is gradually going international. (End)