Capturing Egypt’s Sistine Chapel with the BLK360

Author:Reka Vasszi

Queen Nefertari’s 3,000-year-old tomb was captured with 3D laser scanning cutting-edge technology to generate a Virtual Reality (VR) experience of one of ancient Egypt’s most beloved ruler’s “Journey to Eternity.” In this ground-breaking project, thanks to the conjunction of theLeica BLK360and VR technologies, viewers can fully immerse and explore the ancient tomb and the wall paintings.

Using the smallest imaging laser scanner and photogrammetry technology,ExperiusVR, a full-service virtual and augmented reality studio, and好奇心流这是屡获殊荣的流媒体目的地，在皇后区占领了皇后·尼弗塔里（Queen Nefertari）的杰出坟墓。专家团队生成了一个详细的3D点云，以保存它，并使它可以在VR中访问子孙后代。

“The capture of Nefertari’s tomb proves there are no boundaries in the effort to digitally preserve and explore our world’s most stunning cultural artifacts,”said Clint Stinchcomb, president and CEO of CuriosityStream.

Preserving Egypt’s Sistine Chapel digitally

Queen Nefertari was the most beloved wife of Ramses II. Still, after her death in 1255 BC, the eternal love and respect of her husband is presented intact as painted artworks on the walls of the royal chambers of what has been named Egypt’s Sistine Chapel.

Restricted to visitors since the 1950s, the ancient tomb has extremely limited access as the wall paintings are vulnerable to the humidity of visitors' breath, which increases fungi causing damage to the artworks.

Nefertari的坟墓具有文化和科学意义，因为它描绘了Ramses II时代的建筑，这是古埃及人对来世之旅的信念的最详细的代表。如果不能保留并为公众提供美丽和历史丰富的美感，那将是巨大的损失。

“A virtual tour will save the tomb,”said Zahi Hawass, an archaeologist and former Minister of State for antiquities. As the tomb is restricted to tourists, ExperiusVR and Curiosity Stream had the vision to create an immersive VR experience by capturing every detail of Nefertari’s tomb with the BLK360.

An efficient workflow was set registering the point cloud withLeica Cyclone processing softwareand combining data in Autodesk’sReCap PRO mobileto create the 3D models for VR.

The team used the BLK360 for secondary geometry andscale accuracy. Laser scanning was followed by overlapping thousands of DSLR photographs to the point cloud, creating an identical reconstruction of Nefertari’s tomb navigable in VR.

保持在地下的连接

One of the requirements when Steven Frisbey, technical director at ExperiusVR, was deciding on which 3D laser scanner to choose was可靠的WiFi连接. As the chambers are built two levels underground, ExperiusVR experts were faced with the challenge of losing wireless connection. Thereliability of the BLK360completely surprised the ExperiusVR team who had to overcome the challenge of staying connected below ground and capturing data in limited time.

“The first thing that stood out to me about the BLK360 was WiFi. The second thing that impressed me is the speed of the scans and the ease of use. It was so fast that we could finish up the entire set a day in advance, which saved us a solid amount of money. I will definitely use the BLK360 in all of my next projects,”said Frisbey.

Digital heritage - the meeting point for tourism and education

Leveraging the technology of Leica Geosystems to embrace and preserve the original spirit of Nefertari’s royal tomb through 3D laser scanning and VR, the ancient site has been digitally reopened to the world. This immersive VR experience brings heritage preservation, tourism and education to a next level. Nefertari’s tomb is one of a growing number of archaeological sites thatare being preserved digitally thanks to laser scanning technology.

“Now, because of this project, regardless of what happens to the real-life tomb, we'll always have a fully-explorable version that can be appreciated for generations to come. And that’s the thing that makes us the most proud about this project,”said Frisbey.