CAHRISMA 
Conservation of the Acoustical Heritage
by the Revival and Identification of the Sinan's Mosques' Acoustics
INCO-MED 3-years project started in January 2000
Objectives
Objective of CAHRISMA is to innovate and implement
the concept of ?Hybrid Architectural Heritage?, in the field of conservation
and restoration. Hybrid Architectural Heritage is a new way of identification
that covers acoustical peculiarities besides visual ones.
Summary of the project
General goals of CAHRISMA are: to identify and revival
acoustical heritage of Sinan?s mosques and churches and to create an integrated
3D audio-visual system to conserve architectural heritage. At this project,
not only the architectural work will be reconstructed virtually, but the
life inside will also be recreated. In order to simulate the realistic
effects, virtual humans will be simulated and reproduced.
EPFL-VRlab's contribution
VRlab is involved in the visualisation of the selected
worship spaces. The visualisation will include modelling of the ancient
environment and moreover simulation of the people and their motion inside
the selected spaces. The simulation of human crowds for populating virtual
worlds will provide a more realistic sense. Therefore, virtual environments
that contain sounds, visions as well as virtual humans will be created.
To obtain authentic and realistic environments virtual humans will have
a kind of environment knowledge and also they will be able to move and
interact within this environment.
VRlab lead visual measurement of four historical monuments.
A selected monument, Sokullu Mosque, is been modelling in 3D using architectural
plans and visual measurements.
Next, virtual acoustical environments will be
combined with virtual visual environments to enable users to have more
realistic perceptions. As in both acoustical and visual simulation fields,
reliable, tested and sufficient knowledge and experience exist, the superposition
of sounds and visions in the real time systems which is the main challenge
of this project will be accomplished. A novel real time Hybrid (acoustical
and visual) Architectural Heritage System will be designed and created
with other partners.
Finally, these environments will be used for different
purposes, such as acoustical comparison and evaluation of mosques and churches,
revival of lost acoustical environments, subjective evaluations of lost acoustical
peculiarities, identification of current environments in a detailed way and
audio-visual conservation of architectural heritage. The data obtained from
acoustical evaluations will be used for the improvement of the acoustical criteria
for halls with domes, and could also be used in the modern design tools.
Partners
VRlab contact