Enhancing the digitization of cultural heritage: State-of-Practice

The use of Hi-Tech in cultural heritage preservation and the promotion of cultural heritage values in general, particularly artifacts, opens new opportunities for attracting tourists while also posing a challenge due to the need to reward high-quality excursions to visitors historical and cultural values. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Hi-Tech in new building management have been widely adopted in the construction industry; however, Historic Building Information Modeling (HBIM) is an exciting challenge in 3D modeling and building management. For those reasons, the Scan-to-HBIM approach involves generating an HBIM model for existing buildings from the point cloud data collected by Terrestrial 3D Laser Scanner integrated with Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), contributes to spatial historic sites simulation for virtual experiences. Therefore, this study aims to (1) generate the application of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality to Historic Building Information Modeling - based workflows in a case study which is a monument in the city; (2) evaluate the application of these technologies to improve awareness of visitors related to the promotion of historical values by surveying the experience before and after using this application. The findings shed light on the barriers that prevent users from utilizing technologies and problem-solving solutions. According to the survey results, after experiencing virtual tours through applications and video explanations, participant's perception of the case study improved. When combined with emerging Hi-Tech and immersive interactive games, the Historic Building Information Modeling helps increase information transmission to improve visitor awareness and promote heritage values.