Visualization of Frescoed Surfaces: Buonconsiglio Castle - Aquila Tower, Cycle of the Months

One of the major masterpieces of international Gothic art (1350-1450) is the Cycle of the Months, a fresco to be found in the Aquila tower in Buonconsiglio castle, Trento, Italy. The main room in the tower, completely frescoed with the Cycle of the Months, preserves a rare and most precious example of medieval painting on a nonreligious subject. As part of the PEACH (Personal Experience with Active Cultural Heritage) project, the objective of this work was to acquire the most suitable data and generate a textured 3D model for interactive manipulation and creation of a photo-realistic walk-through movie. This will give a vista to scientists, conservationists, historians, and visitors for looking at and studying this room and its frescos in virtual reality. Since photo-realism of the frescos is of utmost importance, it became apparent that many problems have not been widely addressed in existing techniques and standard software. For example, texture data is typically collected as images containing particular lighting conditions at the time of photography. When these images are stitched together, discontinuities are usually visible. Another problem is related to the real-time requirement of interaction and manipulation of the model. Since it is important to maintain the best texture quality to visualize the details of the frescos and at the same time have smooth interactive visualization, many problems had to be addressed. We build upon existing techniques developed for texture acquisition and reconstruction to generate efficient maps of high visual quality. Results of the first phase of the project are presented.