Cultural heritages include rich information related to social, historical and
cultural values. Affected by climate, environmental and other factors, some
valuable heritage information is threatened through destruction or disappearance,
and some is still not utilized sufficiently. How to investigate and utilize
such information effectively is a significant scientific and technological issue.
Archaeologists, museologists and conservators are working on issues such as
the excavation of precious heritage items, the exhibiting of this valuable information
and the strengthening of their outline structure, which aims to
conserve and utilize the heritage items as well as their values.
The development of information technology has shown its significant role
in large and fast digitalization, personalization and so on. Information technology
is more and more important in heritage preservation, including, but
not limited to, digitalization, digitally-aided research, conservation, exhibition
and utilization. First introduced in the 1980s, information technology
was initially used to store information about relics, and then some digitalization
and exhibition applications were implemented. Currently, information
technology is applied in many different aspects in heritage information preservation.
Digitalization can store the heritage information in digital format
therefore prolonging the “life” of the heritage items. Digitally-aided research
technologies can help to improve the effect and efficiency of the archaeological
research. Digitally-aided conservation technologies can simulate the conservation
effect and monitor the heritage items in real-time, hence avoiding
unpredicted losses. Digital exhibition technologies can remove the time and
space limitations of traditional exhibitions, and can also exhibit the implicit
values more vividly. Digital utilization can synthetically utilize the historical,
cultural and scientific values of cultural heritage items by applying modern
science and technology