Hyper heritage : towards a framework for a digital twin of cultural heritage

Abstract

At the center stage of the fourth industrial revolution, the Digital Twin concept is becoming increasingly relevant in academia and industry. While enabling technologies, such as Visual Computing have their own set of established concepts and applications, the concept of Digital Twins is still in discussion, as both industry experts and scholars agree that such concept has its applications not only for production systems but in a wide array of purposes, including Digital Heritage. In this respect, this work aims to investigate current trends on Digital Heritage and presents a theoretical framework for digitizing the cultural heritage while encompassing aspects of the digital twin concept. Based on the theoretical framework and the first cycle of Design Science Research methodology, a visual computing methodology is presented for generating collaborative and low-cost digital twins, with a case study of the Fortress of São João in Rio de Janeiro, the city’s birthplace. Furthermore, some proposals for future research and the latest trends that could enable even more accurate digital twins of cultural heritage, including intangible heritage, are also presented.