A Study on the Utilization of Chinese Digital Heritage Using Augmented Reality Technology -Focusing on the case of digital restoration of Yuan Mingyuan in China-

Cultural heritages and relics are our valuable historical materials that can embody the spirit of the Chinese times and culture .These cultural heritages are divided into tangible cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage, in which tangible cultural heritage refers to cultural relics, architecture, cultural sites and other existing cultural heritage. China has a long history as well as rich and colorful culture. In addition, there are about 400,000 cultural heritages. So many cultural heritages contain rich and colorful history and culture. With the passage of time, many precious historical materials have been destroyed, and it is difficult to find their original appearance. To restore the original appearance, it will take a huge amount of capital and a long time.There have been many cases of cultural heritage damage, including Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, the site of Weiyang Palace in Xi’an, and the Old Summer Palace(Yuan Mingyuan) all of which have been ruined currently, so it is difficult to find what they looked like at that time. Therefore, it is also necessary for China to study the digital restoration technology with virtual reality and augmented reality technology to solve this problem.With the development of digital technology, augmented reality technology has been applied in many fields. Augmented reality uses Markerless 3D Tracking technology to analyze data on a computer to create virtual spaces similar to reality, and to make virtual 3D cameras. With the use of Unity 3D, Unreal and other game engine programs, through the monitor, Google Glass, mobile phones and other machines, people can producevarious programs of digital images, 3D modeling, animation, video and other visual images for real-time synthesis and virtual technology. Through augmented reality technology, virtual images in real space look as if they were in real space. A strong sense of immersion will be brought to the audience through visual and auditory input.Through augmented reality technology, we can truly see the cultural heritage restored digitally just as if the real space would appear on the cultural heritage sites.In the cultural heritage sites, people can not only appreciate the buildings at that time, but also intuitively experience the people’s daily life and many other cultural contents. In addition, augmented reality digital restoration technology will not destroy cultural heritage and thus it can achieve the effect of restoration more conveniently and safely through digital technology. This paper studies the augmented reality digital restoration case and cultural heritage digitization technology of Old Summer Palace in China, applies augmented reality technology to digital restoration of cultural heritage, and proposes the changing factors in the future through various activity programs and the fourth industrial technology.