=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2320/paper6
|storemode=property
|title=Cultural Heritage Digitalization in BiH: State-of-the-Art Review and Future Trends
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2320/paper6.pdf
|volume=Vol-2320
|authors=Belma Ramic-Brkić,Marijana Ćosović,Selma Rizvić
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ircdl/Ramic-BrkicCR19
}}
==Cultural Heritage Digitalization in BiH: State-of-the-Art Review and Future Trends==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2320/paper6.pdf
Cultural Heritage Digitalization in BiH:
State-of-the-Art Review and Future Trends
Belma Ramić Brkić1 [0000≠0002≠8205≠0137]
, Marijana
2[0000≠0003≠3398≠3157]
Ćosović , and Selma Rizvić3[0000≠0001≠7085≠7104]
1
University Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, SSST,
Hrasnicka cesta 3a, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
belma.ramic@ssst.edu.ba
2
University of East Sarajevo, Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Vuka Karadžića 30, 71126 Lukavica, East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
marijana.cosovic@etf.ues.rs.ba
3
University Sarajevo, Faculty of Electrical Engineering,
Zmaja od Bosne, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
srizvic@etf.unsa.ba
Abstract. Cultural heritage sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), a
country rich in religious buildings and ancient structures, are in constant
need of preservation and reconstruction. In addition, tangible cultural
heritage has been subject to war destruction and the only feasible op-
tion for reconstructing some of them is digitalization. On the contrary,
the intangible cultural heritage encompassing oral traditions and expres-
sions, traditional skills, as well as science and habits related to nature
and world are a vital expression of cultural heritage and in the need
of preservation. Over the past years, with the availability of technology
and the identified research interest and the potential, significant progress
has been made towards the preservation of cultural heritage. Motivated
by these facts, this state-of-the-art report summarizes recent trends and
discusses its value to the society. This paper therefore, gives an overview
of the tools and the current state of digitalization of cultural heritage
sites in BiH in an attempt of contributing to its preservation.
Keywords: Cultural heritage · Digitalization · Digital storytelling · Vir-
tual museum.
1 Introduction
Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country with a very rich and long history, a country
rich in cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. Unfortunately, a num-
ber of cultural sites were seriously damaged or completely destroyed during the
recent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). According to Hitchner, approxi-
mately 2771 cultural monuments such as the Mostar Bridge, mosques and tekkes,
Orthodox and Catholic churches, were damaged or destroyed [6].
40 B. Ramić et al.
Furthermore, in October 2012, several key National cultural institutions such
as the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Historical Museum
of Bosnia and Herzegovina (among others) closed their doors for the public visi-
tors. It was a result of the governmental apathy, financial issues, lack of training
among others. Due to such poor conditions of government institutions, the Ar-
chaeological Lexicon of Bosnia and Herzegovina was last updated in 1988. The
four-volume book is composed of descriptions of geographical characteristics such
as ”close to a broken tree”, a description that has changed significantly over these
years (from 1988 to Today) [10].
In an attempt of BiH’s cultural heritage preservation, a number of researchers
started working in this direction. Today we have virtual reconstructions of me-
dieval Bosnian gravestone ”stećak” (Figure 1), Sarajevo City Hall Vijećnica (Fig-
ure 2), as well as virtual heritage application of Sarajevo Old town ”Virtual
Sarajevo - Baščaršija” [15]. Sarajevo City Hall represents the first project and
initial application of computer graphics in virtual cultural heritage developed by
the Sarajevo Graphics Group under the mentor-ship of Prof. Selma Rizvić [7].
Fig. 1: Stećak from Donja Zgošća [15] Fig. 2: Sarajevo City Hall [7]
In this paper we present an overview of the work done in an attempt to
preserve the cultural heritage of the country. A large number of researchers are
working on implementing the latest trends in the digitization process. Many oth-
ers work as autonomous attempts, published locally. In the following sections, we
will present the currently implemented projects and methods used to preserve
the tangible and intangible cultural heritage in BiH, as well as the machine learn-
ing techniques that apply to the cultural heritage domain. We will also provide
a discussion about the work done, but also point out future trends and tasks to
be completed.
Cultural Heritage Digitalization in BiH 41
2 Implemented projects
There are various cultural heritage applications: virtual museums, virtual presen-
tations of objects that do not exist any more, important archaeological remains,
serious games for cultural heritage, among others. Storytelling is becoming in-
creasingly important as an addition to these applications. According to Rizvic,
”every object, site or artefact is better perceived and understood through the
adjoining story.”[15]
This concept is recognized by the physical museums as they now offer their
exhibitions combined with the digital content. This results in the increase of
their visibility as well as in the number of visitors.
Here are some of the virtual exhibits in BiH ([12]):
– Virtual Museum of Traditional Bosnian Objects, the Museum of Sarajevo
[14];
– Sarajevo Survival Tools, the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
[2], sample Figure 3;
– Virtual Museum of Genocide upon Bosniaks;
– Bosniak Institute Virtual Museum [22];
Fig. 3: Sarajevo Survival Tools Virtual Museum: Cookers exhibit [12]
42 B. Ramić et al.
Sarajevo Survival Tools and Virtual Museum of Genocide upon Bosniaks
belong to a relatively new term dark tourism Virtual Museums. These exhibits
allow visitors to visit sites of death, disaster and tragedy [9].
Even though, visitors prefer interactive content over the static movie or pre-
rendered installation, a number of studies has shown that visitors also tend to
get bored quickly and hence leave the virtual environment before seeing all that
is offered. The concept of a digital story was first introduced in the Sarajevo
Survival Tools project where it received positive user feedback [16]. In choosing
the real or virtual avatar to present the information to users, it was reported
that participants better react to human avatar. The study showed that ”a real
avatar’s representation in virtual heritage storytelling applications has greater
impact on user’s perception of information” [20].
Continuing in this direction, Rizvic et al. [18] created a set of guidelines to
address Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS) presentation of cultural heritage.
To develop a new IDS method, hyper-storytelling, authors resorted to engaging
experts from various fields and based on it raised following questions: how to
maximize user’s involvement in virtual presentation and maintain the level of
educational entertainment at the same time by providing motivation for users
to view content systematically. The experts come from computer science, psy-
chology, communicology, film and visual arts, literature, and human-computer
interaction field of research. The 4D virtual application of known cultural her-
itage site developed previously by the authors served as a sample IDS application
for interdisciplinary team to help identify points of improvement in new method-
ology. Objectives of the evaluation process included information perception, dig-
ital storytelling concept evaluation, interactive virtual environment evaluation
as well as overall user satisfaction. The hyper-storytelling IDS application guide-
lines contributed by the interdisciplinary panel encompass engaging professionals
for all content fields and at the same time creating unique visual identity. It was
suggested that the content should be divided into, short, dynamic, and infor-
mative sub stories presented by the characters that easily communicate emotion
hence increasing educational entertainment and help solving narrative paradox.
In addition, guidelines recommended platform independent IDS application.
3 Preservation of Tangible Cultural Heritage in BiH
The tangible cultural heritage is defined by the UNESCO [3] as: ”The legacy of
physical artefacts (buildings and historic places, monuments, etc.) of a group or
society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and
bestowed for the benefit of future generations.”
Virtual Sarajevo project is composed of panoramic photographs, video walk-
throughs, virtual models of cultural heritage objects, and stories that marked
Cultural Heritage Digitalization in BiH 43
this area [13]. The stories in particular were created using digital storytelling
techniques such as storyboarding, off sound track recording, editing and post-
production. This project represents the first documented attempt of digitaliza-
tion and representation of BiH’s tangible and intangible heritage.
For the reconstruction of ”stećak”, methods such as 3D scanning and render-
ing with high fidelity graphics (an image with high resolution) were used [15].
Damaged parts were reconstructed using 3D modelling techniques.
Virtual model of Vijećnica was created using basic geometry and compound
objects such as cubes and Boolean operations. Textures were edited in Photo-
shop and then applied to the 3D model. The model had to be optimized for web
presentation [7].
For the model of Baščaršija, authors used VRML browser to browse around
the streets of the old town. In this project, authors for the first time introduced
the concept of stories - ”short movies capable of dramatizing historical events
and providing lesser-known historical contexts for particular objects and events
from the past of Sarajevo” [15].
Audio stories were used to compensate the lack of 3D movement ability in
the Bosniak Institute Virtual Museum project [22]. In a performed study, 79%
of respondents did not notice that there was no allowed movement in the virtual
environment. Specifically, when asked ”Were you able to move in the 3D envi-
ronment?”, they replied affirmatively.
In the virtual reconstruction of existing Travnik Fortress, most preserved me-
dieval Bosnian facility, the author used traditional methods of graphics pipeline
such as data acquisition, modelling, texturing and rendering [8]. However, they
showed new ways of inhabiting the virtual environment. In the project they cre-
ated two scenes to be immersed with the real-time environment. One includes
a narrator telling a story about the history of a fortress, and another one in-
cludes a short animation of soldiers playing chess. The identified drawback of
both scenes and used softwares (Quest3D and X3D) was the lack of Z or depth
coordinate for full user experience.
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Sarajevo built in
1874 represents one of the most important and most beautiful monuments of
the Orthodox Culture in BiH. In an attempt of its digitalization, a hight-quality
multimedia presentation of the interior and exterior, web presentation, DVD,
panoramic photos and physical 3D model, prototype for creation of souvenirs,
were created [5]. In this project Flash technology was used for the first time,
which allowed faster loading and more efficient display of the entire 3D model.
44 B. Ramić et al.
As part of the Master thesis project, student Mirsad Festa at the University
Sarajevo School of Science and Technology did a complete multimedia 3D presen-
tation of the Butmir Neolithic culture. Excavated partial objects were precisely
modelled to show how the objects looked originally, Figure 4, [1].
Fig. 4: Butmir Neolithic culture [1]
In [19] author presents interactive virtual 3D presentation of the archaeolog-
ical site, Tašlihan, in Sarajevo that is implemented in Museum of Sarajevo and
on-line (Figure 5). Several presentation forms are used: documentary story, in-
teractive digital story and serious game. Author explores how 3D reconstruction
of the disappeared cultural heritage benefits from the storytelling presentation
approach. Steps in creating the interactive virtual presentation consists of cre-
ating a high-quality 3D virtual model, designing the interactive digital story
and the serious game. Additionally, documentary story was created appealing to
more traditional users.
Fig. 5: Tašlihan [19]
Cultural Heritage Digitalization in BiH 45
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University in Banja Luka is a partner in
a European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program with a goal
of creating a unique Virtual Research Environment (VRE) in South-east Eu-
rope and the Eastern Mediterranean (SEEM). The project facilitates regional
interdisciplinary collaboration, with special focus amongst others, on scientific
community of Digital Cultural Heritage. A set of tools and services are de-
signed for facilitating work regarding cultural and historical heritage. The ap-
plications that are in development by a BiH partner are Content-Based Image
Retrieval and Classification in Cultural Heritage as well as creation of Cultural
Heritage Repository (CHERE). CHERE is a set of multiple standalone applica-
tions/services used for scanning, processing and displaying of 3D objects. It acts
as a repository of digitized entries, allowing for efficient data creation from one
side and easier data access from the other side. In addition, it allows work with
panoramic and 360 degree images hence creating interactive virtual tours.
Digitalization of the so-called Fojnica Armorial (”Fojnički Grbovnik”) is a
project initiated by a local priest and his monastery in an effort to make it pub-
licly available and preserve the original [4]. The project, led by enthusiasts and
self-taught experts, has complied with all the main goals of digitalization, such
as: preserving the original and facilitating access to the broader public through
both printed and electronic media.
4 Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage in BiH
The term Intangible cultural heritage is defined by the UNESCO [3] as: ”The
practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills â as well as the in-
struments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith â that
communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their
cultural heritage.”
Mevlevi dervish ritual in Isa bey’s Tekke was presented using computer an-
imation. A visitor was placed in the center enabled to interact with the digital
content being provided [17]. The digital content (the stories) are triggered by
the user movement and gaze direction.
Zmijanje embroidery has been included in 2014 on the UNESCO list of the
intangible cultural heritage. Specific embroidery technique comes from villages
in area Zmijanje on mountain Manjača in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Amongst
different digital collections the Museum of the Serbian Republic has important
Zmijanje embroidery digitalized collection (53 artefacts). The Museum has a
large archeological collection with a plan to create virtual and interactive on-
line museum as well as scientific archive of very precise models for archaeologists.
46 B. Ramić et al.
Most recently, Selmanovic et al. managed to recreate the diving tradition
from the Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina using Virtual Reality
[21]. Upon watching 360¶ video stories about the tradition and history, complet-
ing the quiz evaluation, users are enabled to virtually jump off the bridge. In
conclusion, the authors reported ”It is clear that in the concept of preservation
of the intangible elements of this heritage that VR has been the superior medium
in comparison to more traditional methods.”
5 Machine learning applied to Cultural Heritage
Machine learning techniques and in particular deep learning techniques such as
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) are mostly used techniques for image
classification. Use of high resolution data, such as remote sensing images, could
be useful for the process of generating 3D models. In particular, aerial images
could be used for generating the heritage building 2D plans. Furthermore, field
photographs as well as local knowledge could be used to create vertical struc-
tures. Acquiring images of BiH cultural heritage sites for CH dataset repository
in conjunction with remote sensing image classification could lead in the direc-
tion of wider adoption of 3D cultural heritage models generation.
Authors in [23] use split-brain auto-encoders, a special form of traditional
auto-encoders that use cross-channel prediction in order to tackle colorization
task for self-supervised learning image representation. Self-supervised prediction
is concerned with prediction of labels that are generated from vast amount of
available raw data such as remote sensing images. For training of split-brain
auto-encoders benchmark dataset for remote sensing image classification with-
out image labels is used. SVM classifier with RBF kernel as well as CNN are
used for remote sensing image classification on AID dataset and authors have
reported results similar to the state of the art results.
Pilipovic et al. [11] perform remote sensing feature extraction and classifi-
cation using pre-trained and fine-tuned CNN. CNN is pre-trained on ImageNet
datasets and also fine-tuned for the task of scene classification in remote sens-
ing images. This is motivated by the absence of the large labelled dataset of
remote sensing images that is usually manually labelled hence, being a very
expensive and time consuming task. In addition, CNN is used for feature ex-
traction followed by a linear SVM classification. In this paper two modern CNN
architectures were used: ResNet and SqueezeNet. Authors have shown that the
features extracted using CNN pre-trained on ImageNet dataset can be used for
reliable remote sensing scene classification. The authors obtained a classification
accuracy of over 94% using a fine-tuned ResNet.
Cultural Heritage Digitalization in BiH 47
6 Discussion
All modern societies in one way or another are required to protect and preserve
their cultural heritage. Reasons are numerous but most important ones are rein-
forcement of sense of identity, education and historical research. Countries which
were subjects of wars and conflicts guard their cultural heritage sites with spe-
cial attention since during war times there is a direct correlation between loss
to cultural heritage and loss of cultural identity [24].
Storytelling is one way of preserving cultural heritage (tangible and intangi-
ble) through reliving stories that are usually in the case of tangible heritage ac-
companied by the cultural heritage site model. In the case of storytelling about
intangible cultural heritage, customs, traditions, and experiences can be con-
veyed to the general public. A number of user studies reported here suggest that
stories enhance users’ virtual experience. However, researchers are still trying to
find a way to motivate users for longer virtual visits. Numerous studies presented
here show that users do not watch all stories. The latest research includes serious
games as an attempt to somehow be considered as a reward for invested effort
in watching all the stories [21].
Moreover, artificial intelligence and machine learning can potentially assist
in creating modern storytelling, as required by young people who are used to
the complex multimedia experiences. In addition, as the types of storytelling are
evolving from linear to branching and further to organic type of storytelling, we
see the increased presence of modern technologies involved. Organic storytelling
is fully-interactive storytelling with an unlimited number of outcomes.
Building 3D models requires assembling large amounts of 2D images. For the
preservation of existing cultural heritage sites, machine learning algorithms can
be employed to classify images produced during the measurement of cultural
heritage objects. The same applies to existing artefacts in museum collections
and their need for digitalization.
Several challenges have been highlighted as part of this report and are mainly
related to the lack of data on damaged or completely destroyed objects of impor-
tance for cultural heritage. Many reconstructions of intangible heritage depend
on stories that are passed from one generation to another. ”Sevdah” represents
a traditional Bosnian music and as intangible heritage still posses a challenge in
preservation context for the researchers.
7 Conclusions
Virtual cultural heritage presentation could be conveyed to general audience ei-
ther on-line or in museums keeping in mind that a user needs an appealing and
time efficient approach in which information is going to be presented. We are
48 B. Ramić et al.
constantly seeing progress in this direction from the availability of new tools,
software and hardware updates, internet connections, and so on.
In addition to all of the above, research presented here, highlights some of
the challenges that researchers face in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the
ongoing digitalization process. One of the most important is the lack of data.
Many historical books have been destroyed, making it extremely difficult to find
information and images about the original condition of the destroyed or dam-
aged objects in order to re-create them as 3D models.
The main contribution of the paper is an overview of the methodologies for
the virtual presentation of cultural heritage which are used in BH projects, with
a special emphasis on interactive digital narration. These methodologies can be
applied to new projects and serve as an inspiration for new ideas on the preser-
vation and presentation of cultural heritage.
Therefore, what we are looking forward to is an increase in the number of
researchers who are turning to this field. They are exploring various avenues
in overcoming the pointed challenges. Further, tourist community of Bosnia and
Herzegovina is constantly reporting about the increase in the number of tourists.
Virtual content could be considered as one of the attraction elements in present-
ing the rich cultural background. Further research will show whether serious
games have and to what extent contributed to the widespread use of cultural
heritage applications, or the use of technology itself is more useful and interest-
ing for younger generations, as in the case of virtual diving project.
References
1. Butmir culture. http://h.etf.unsa.ba/butmir/english/more.html, online; ac-
cessed 12 December 2018
2. Sarajevo Survival Tools. http://h.etf.unsa.ba/srp, online; accessed 10 Decem-
ber 2018
3. UNESCO. Tangible Cultural Heritage. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/cairo/
culture/tangible-cultural-heritage/, online; accessed 4 January 2019
4. Bratic, V., Gadzo, F.: Digitalizacija u Franjevackom samostanu u Fojnici. Tech.
rep., Komparativna knjizevnost i bibliotekarstvo, Filozofski fakultet, Sarajevo
(June 2014)
5. Festa, M., Rizvic, S.: Multimedijalna prezentacija Saborne Crkve u Sarajevu. In:
Digitization of National Heritage, Old Records from natural and Social and Digital
Humanities (2009)
6. Hitchner, R.B.: War and peace: heritage on the front line. Antiquity 90(351), 813–
816 (2016). https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2016.76
7. Hulusic, V.: Optimization treshold in Sarajevo City hall virtual model for effi-
cient web presentation. In: Proceedings of Central European Seminar on Computer
Graphics, Smolenice, Slovakia (2007)
Cultural Heritage Digitalization in BiH 49
8. Jovisic, V.: Augmented real-time virtual environments. In: Proceedings of Central
European Seminar on Computer Graphics, Smolenice, Slovakia (2009)
9. Kaelber, L.: A memorial as virtual traumascape: Darker tourism in 3d and cyber-
space to the gas chambers of Auswitz. e-Review of Tourism Research 5(2), 24–33
(2007)
10. Lawler, A.: Bosnia and Herzegovina: Cultural heritage on the brink. In: Digging
in the crisis. (2013)
11. Pilipovic, R., Risojevic, V.: Evaluation of convnets for large-scale scene classifi-
cation from high-resolution remote sensing images. In: IEEE EUROCON 2017
-17th International Conference on Smart Technologies. pp. 932–937 (July 2017).
https://doi.org/10.1109/EUROCON.2017.8011248
12. Rizvic, S.: Story guided virtual cultural heritage applications. Journal of Interactive
Humanities 2(1) (2014)
13. Rizvic, S., Sadzak, A.: Digital storytelling - representation of Bosnian intagible
heritage in the Virtual Sarajevo project. In: VAST’08: Proceedings of the 8th In-
ternational Conference on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage.
Eurographics Association (2008)
14. Rizvic, S., Sadzak, A.: Virtual museum of Bosnian traditional objects. In: Proceed-
ings of South East European Digitization Initiative, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herze-
govina. (2010)
15. Rizvic, S., Sadzak, A., Buza, E., Chalmers, A.: Virtual reconstruction and digi-
talization of cultural heritage sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In: SEEDI 2007,
Review of the National Center for Digitization pp. 82–90 (2008)
16. Rizvic, S., Sadzak, A., Hulusic, V., Karahasanovic, A.: Interactive digital sto-
rytelling in the Sarajevo Survival Tools virtual environment. In: Proceedings of
Spring Conference on Computer Graphics, Smolenice, Slovakia. (2012)
17. Rizvic, S., Sadzak, A., Zayat, M.E., Zalik, B., Rupnik, B., Lukac, N.: Interactive
storytelling about Isa Bey’s Endowment. In: Proceedings of South East European
Digitization Initiative, Zagreb, Croatia. (2013)
18. Rizvic, S., Djapo, N., Alispahic, F., Hadzihalilovic, B., Cengic, F.F., Imamovic,
A., Okanovic, V., Boskovic, D.: Guidelines for interactive digital storytelling pre-
sentations of cultural heritage. In: 9th International Conference on Virtual Worlds
and Games for Serious Applications, VS-Games 2017, Athens, Greece, September
6-8, 2017. pp. 253–259 (2017), http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/
VS-GAMES.2017.8056610
19. Rizvic, S.: How to breathe life into cultural heritage 3d reconstructions. European
Review 25(1), 39–50 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1017/S106279871600034X
20. Sadzak, A., Rizvic, S., Dalton, C., Chalmers, A.: Information perception in virtual
heritage storytelling using animated and real avatars. In: Proceedings of Central
European Seminar on Computer Graphics, Smolenice, Slovakia (2007)
21. Selmanovic, E., Rizvic, S., Harvey, C., Boskovic, D., Hulusic, V., Chahin, M., Sljivo,
S.: VR Video Storytelling for Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation. In: Sablat-
nig, R., Wimmer, M. (eds.) Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Her-
itage. The Eurographics Association (2018). https://doi.org/10.2312/gch.20181341
22. Sljivo, S.: Audio guided virtual museums. In: Proceedings of Central European
Seminar on Computer Graphics, Smolenice, Slovakia (2012)
23. Stojnic, V., Risojevic, V.: Evaluation of split-brain autoencoders for high-resolution
remote sensing scene classification. In: 2018 International Symposium ELMAR. pp.
67–70 (Sept 2018). https://doi.org/10.23919/ELMAR.2018.8534634
24. Wijesuriya, G.: Cultural heritage in postwar recovery. In: Stanley-Price, N. (ed.)
Papers from the ICCROM FORUM (2005)