IITH plans digital preservation project starting with Golconda

Hyderabad, Aug 31 (PTI) The Indian Institute ofTechnology Hyderabad is planning to kick off its digitalheritage preservation project with the city’s Golconda Fort,one of the most famous and the biggest fortress in the Deccanplateau. According to its Director Prof U B Desai, IITH hasreceived funding from the HRD Ministry to start a designinnovation centre, which would be spearheaded by the DesignDepartment but also involve faculty from all otherdepartments. This is a hub and spoke collaborative centre, withIITH being the hub and International Institute of InformationTechnology Hyderabad (IIIT-Hyderabad), IIIT Chittoor andIndian Institute of Information Technology Design &Manufacturing Kancheepuram being the spoke. One of the majoractivity is digital heritage preservation. "Funding is approximately Rs 10 crore", Desai toldPTI. He said the plan is start the initiative with digitalpreservation of Golconda fort here within a year. "Currently, we are in the process of getting all therequired infrastructure ready like various cameras, laserscanners and software which can stitch things together in anice and flamboyant manner", Desai said. "Today we havetechnology for digitally preserving things". The idea is to complete digital preservation of coupleof heritage sites on a pilot basis and demonstrate that "wecan do it," he said, adding, thereafter the country can takeforward such an activity to cover many more heritage sites. Desai underlined the need to preserve heritage sites,noting that things like natural calamities and extreme heathave the potential to damage them. Digitisation ensures thatthese sites are preserved "forever". Noting that "people in the West have done it(preservation of heritage sites), he spoke about such aninitiative done on ‘Statue of David’ by Stanford University,and ‘Rani Ki Vav’ in Gujarat by a foreign team. The whole idea is to create an "experiential feeling" sothat anybody with internet access can take a tour of the sitewhich has been digitally preserved, Desai said. PTI RS DK DIPBAS