TUSTAN AR

 

 

 

 

THE FIRST AUGMENTED REALITY APP THAT RECREATES A 3D MODEL OF A WOODEN MEDIEVAL UKRAINIAN CASTLE IN ITS FORMER GLORY IN THE ROCKY HILLSIDE

 

THERE IS NOTHING LIKE THIS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE A WOODEN STRUCTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES CAN BE REPRODUCED SO PRECISELY AND WITH SUCH DETAIL

 

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Tustan was a cliff-based fortress, the remnants of which are located in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, in the Skole region of Lviv. Tustan used to be a fortification and administrative center, as well as customs point on what was called the ‘salt route’.

 

SoftServe’s R&D division was consulted to develop a mobile augmented reality (AR) application, which, with the help of added reality technology, would show the medieval Tustan fortress of the IX-XVI centuries.

 

The idea to reconstruct the castle was the dream of Ukrainian scientist and ethnographer, Mykhaylo Rozhko. Today his son Vasyl Rozhko is supporting the effort. Reconstruction started from manual measurements of about 4000 locations where wooden planks were placed on the stones between 1971 and 1977. The first graphic reconstruction was made with pencil and paper based on known architecture samples of the time and some wooden remains, with up to 90% accuracy. 

 

Project description

To begin developing this app, SoftServe needed to address several challenges, as all that remains of the fortress today are the sites where wooden blocks were situated. It’s an area that is not similar to other traditional historical sites. In addition, the rocks of the castle had crumbled over time which changed the original outline. SoftServe had to make sure the rocks in the developed 3D model matched those in reality .

Tustan's cliffs

At various weather conditions

Team

Three specialists from SoftServe’s R&D team worked on the project over the course of a year.

Semen Frish

Vasyl Mylko

Teodor Romanus

AR/VR Engineer, R&D

R&D Director

Research Engineer, R&D

“Building the Tustan AR app was a unique challenge with new levels of complexity”, said Semen Frish, AR/VR Engineer at SoftServe. “Working closely with Vasyl Rozhko who founded the reservation and the ‘Tu Stan!’ festival, and who is the initiator of the project, we share his passion to help bring this historic castle back to life. The solution we developed can be applied to the virtual reconstruction of other historical sites in Ukraine and all over the World. We are ready to share our best practices for the preservation of historical heritage.”

The camera and model had numerous parameters, such as focal length and physical size of the sensor, distortion of the lens, zoom and rotation.

 

To pick up these parameters quickly and accurately, SoftServe used several algorithms for mathematical modeling of reconstruction.

 

Great wing

You can see the castle on these images through the app