Digital Cultural Heritage (Innovations in Multimedia, Virtual Reality and Augmentation)

This book explores how digital technologies are transforming cultural heritage preservation, documentation, and archiving. It delves into the technical aspects of digitalization techniques, digital preservation strategies, and the use of advanced technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality in the context of cultural heritage.

Digital Cultural Heritage: Challenges, Solutions and Future Directions covers the digital documentation and archiving of cultural artifacts, which involves the use of imaging techniques, data storage, and metadata management. This aspect would resonate with engineers specializing in imaging technology, data management, and information systems. The chapters showcase the breadth of innovative ideas in delivering, communicating, interpreting, and transforming cultural heritage content and experience through multi-modal, multimedia interfaces. Aiming to offer a balanced overview of digital heritage and culture issues and technologies, the book pulls together expert views and updates on these four broad areas, namely, (a) Smart Cities and Digital Heritage, (b) Heritage and Education, (c) Culture and Society, and (d) Digital Documentation and Preservation.

The book will resonate with engineers specializing in imaging technology, data management, and information systems and those exploring the intersection of digital technology and museums, such as interactive exhibits, digital displays, and virtual museum experiences. It will also be of interest to researchers, curators, and educators as well as the culture-minded public seeking to understand how the burgeoning field of digital heritage and culture may impact our social, cultural, and recreational activities.

Dr. Vinay Kukreja completed his PhD in computer science and engineering. He works as a professor at Chitkara University (Punjab, India) and has more than 17 years of experience. He has filed more than 50 patents and authored three international books. More than 220 of his papers are Scopus indexed. He won the first prize in the SIH Hackathon (2018) under the flagship of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, India. His areas of research interest mainly include machine learning, deep learning, agile software development, and decision-making approaches.

Dr. Amitoj Singh is working as an Associate Professor in the School of Sciences and Emerging Technologies at Jagat Guru Nanak Dev Punjab State Open University. He has more than 17 years of teaching and research experience. Dr. Singh has published more than 50 research papers in international refereed journals, 20 conference papers, and 11 books with international publishers. He has been granted projects by ICSSR, New Delhi, and SCERT, Punjab, in 2023. IEEE USA gave him a major research grant to develop language resources for auditory-impaired persons. He is actively working in the field of assistive technologies for differently abled persons. Braille Slate, developed by Dr. Singh and his team, has won many national and international awards, some of these competitions/awards won are the Connect2effect Hackathon organized by Influx Trust UK in 2016, ‘Most International Project award’ in Ingenuity International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition 2018 held at University of Nauttingum China, and Eureka 2018 startup competitions organized by IIT Bombay. He was invited by United Nations in 2016 to present his innovation ‘e-braille slate’ in International Science and Technology form at UN Headquarters USA 2016. Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Bathinda conferred Dr. Singh with the Budding Researcher award in 2016 for developing an e-braille slate for visually impaired children.

Deepinder Kaur received her Engineering degree from Baba Banda Singh Engineering College in 2008 and her master's in System Software from BITS Pilani in 2013. She has 13 years of IT experience in the quality assurance field with expertise in Lean and Agile Processes. Currently, she is working with Colt Technologies as a test manager and looking into end-to-end quality deliverables for telecom projects.

Jagpuneet Kaur Bajwa is a faculty member at Algoma University and Humber College in Ontario, Canada, in the Applied Sciences and Technology Department. She has a PhD (computing science) and MCA with distinction from Punjabi University Patiala. She has more than 10 years of teaching and research experience. She is an active book reviewer and academician and has published more than 20 research papers in international refereed journals, conference papers, and book chapters. Her area of research mainly focuses on process improvement and Agile software development.