As Simon says, the main goal that he want to achieve with photogrammetry is the culture preservation to retain the memories and the things that are important to us. Simon has recently worked on a huge project: Nefertari’s tomb in Egypt reproduced in virtual reality with a single pass environmental photogrammetry. The project has around 40 billion points, which is more than 50 times higher than any project done in the world with this method.
Simon then moves on talking about deep learning. He highlights its importance when working in Nefertari’s tomb where there were many floorboards and signs (like “no smoking” signs, halogen lights and other stuff hanging on the walls). With the deep learning, they could circle around these instances and, thanks to the algorithm, fill in the gaps with new procedural textures. The result is extraordinary: there isn’t any repetition of texture but the creation of new materials from scratch in a really fast way.
The interview ends with Simon’s idea of creating an automated pipeline to digitalize the world, to virtualize the planet and recreate environments that have been lost with the highest fidelity possible.
Enjoy the video!
