Augmented reality (AR) of historic environments: Representation of parion theater, Biga, Turkey

Similar to other fields in architecture, architectural representation involves adopting digital methods and digital data at a fast pace as in the case of cultural heritage preservation often referred to as digital heritage. Among these digital technologies, augmented reality (AR) techniques are well-known since they contribute a lot to the representation process. In addition to various sectoral uses, the use of AR tools and methods is important to study and research with regards to their integration in historical representation. This study aims to represent historical heritage in terms of photogrammetry and AR methods for the Parion Theater, Biga, Turkey, dates back to 1st-2nd century A.D. and has been under excavation since 2005. There is a need for a high-tech visualization of cultural heritage because it is important to share and visualize data for such users as historians, archaeologists, architects, tourists and so on. The paper uses MULTIRAMA, a method previously developed by ARC Team (MIT) in 2013, which aims to represent the “unseen” to such users by documenting and visualising the site for use in this user-friendly app. The method will support cultural heritage representation in the following stages: i) documentation (use of photogrammetric methods), ii) data process and modeling, (correcting 3D photogrammetric images using AR) and iii) presentation (3D reconstruction of the cultural heritage via an AR application). This holistic and low cost approach will focus on the problem of accurate reconstruction and representation in cultural heritage of Parion.