The earliest-known silk garment that combines both printing and painting skills on fabrics has been revived in high accuracy with the help of intelligent digital technology.

The straight-front robe, a common garment for Han Dynasty nobles more than 2,000 years ago, was unearthed from a Western Han Dynasty tomb at Mawangdui, Changsha City, Hunan Province and is now kept at the Hunan Museum. The printed patterns of branches and tendrils, and the painted patterns of buds, flowers and leaves highlight the highly-developed weaving, printing and dyeing skills of the ancient Chinese.

As the unearthed silk fabrics are fragile and parts of them were creased, damaged or stained, researchers have faced great challenge in recovering the true face of the robe.

"We have studied these relics for quite a long time. Through photographing, scanning and 3D modelling, we tried our best to collect all kinds of data of the robe to know its size, silhouette, cut and patterns in details," said He Ye, head of the data center of Hunan Museum.

For the damaged and stained parts of the garment, researchers used digital modelling AI tools to reconstruct the texture synthesis to generate an accurate digital depiction of the robe.

Two computer-generated three-dimensional images have been created, offering interactive, 360-degree views of the robe: One of the images in this virtual reality simulation shows the current situation of the unearthed robe, and the other demonstrates its original appearance 2,000 years ago. "Through the comparison of two models, visitors can see how a piece of garment changes in a time span of 2,000 years," said He Ye.

Researchers from the Hunan Museum are also working on making similar models of other artifacts to stimulate interest in ancient heritage and to expertly capture the beauty of relics for museum visitors.