Combining image and model based rendering of an archaeological site

Preservation of cultural heritage through digital technology can only be successful if people can experience sites and reconstructions in an intuitive, yet convincingly realistic manner. A way to get people interested in the past is highlighting the link of the past with the present. In this paper, an entire pipeline is discussed that augments an existing Quicktime VR object movie of the virtual reconstruction of an archaeological site with images of the site as it exists today. The new images are generated using an image-based rendering approach.