The “3D data on cultural heritage through three-dimensional, automated, scientifically based digitization” project was launched at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum – BAS. The research focuses on the study and safeguarding of Bulgarian traditional dance through the latest achievements of modern digital technologies. For the first time in the world, data on the movements of a group of chain dance (khoro) players, bearers of traditional knowledge, will be captured and documented using inertial sensor systems.
Among the main objectives of the project is the modeling and implementation of an Internet of Things (IoT) based prototype of a 3D spatio-temporal motion data digitization system. It is envisaged to create a “Standardized Protocol for the Ethical Conduct of 3D Digitization of Group Practices” that will offer a model for archiving, preservation and exposure with clear and transparent rules, comparability and reproducibility of the data from the process of digitizing movement in context and the possibility of its multiplication nationally and internationally.
The intentions of the interdisciplinary team composed of software engineers, humanitarians and medical doctors is to integrate in an organic whole digital technologies and a humanitarian approach to the object of study, humane and ethical treatment of people and openness of scientific results, through which to achieve mobility, social relevance and sustainability over time. The resulting data would support future research in various fields: ICT (algorithmic methods for data processing, exposure in VR and MP, etc.), ethnochoreology (dance analysis, choreography, ethnomusicology), public health (gait analysis, rehabilitation, kinesiology, etc.), robotics, biomechanics, biotonics, ergonometry, psychology, sports and education sciences, museology, etc. They can also be used in the development of cultural industries and the creation of innovative cultural products.
The “3D data for cultural heritage through three-dimensional, automated, science-based digitization” project is funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU, through the Recovery and Resilience Facility to implement an investment under C2I2 “Enhancing the innovation capacity of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) in the field of green and digital technologies” of the Recovery and Resilience Plan.
