Visualization and Haptic rendering of Ancient Woodcarvings in Sli Lanka

Virtual reality and 3D computer graphics are increasingly been employed onreconstruction of cultural heritage sites and archaeological museums in Europe, less effort has beenspent on evaluating the use of different Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as wellas 3D computer graphics for reconstructing heritage sites in South Asia. This research presents acase study focused on the visualization and haptic rendering of ancient woodcarvings in Sri Lanka.Embekke is a very special shrine because it owns collection of the greatest woodcarvings in SriLanka. According to archaic documents, it was built during the 14th Century. The historical recordssuggest that the King Wickremabahu III, who reigned in Gampola from 1359 to 1374, built thisshrine and dedicated to God Kataragama. This paper proposes a virtual reality framework forvisualizing ancient woodcarvings in Embekke, that offers a wide set of features to support realisticrendering, advanced human computer interaction and stereoscopic display technology. In order toachieve a realistic visual simulation of woodcarvings, we used several texture mapping techniques,while haptic device has been utilized to simulate the sense of touch