2006: The 7th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Intelligent Cultural Heritage

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https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/459

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Multi-Resolution Digital 3D Imaging System Applied to the Recording of Grotto Sites: the Case of the Grotta dei Cervi
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Beraldin, J.-Angelo; Blais, Francois; Cournoyer, Luc; Picard, Michel; Gamache, Daniel; Valzano, Virginia; Bandiera, Adriana; Gorgoglione, M. A.; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
The Grotta dei Cervi is a complex and fragile Neolithic cave where human presence left a large number of unique pictographs and petroglyphs. Detailed documentation necessitates recording it at different levels of details or spatial resolutions. A general approach would entail a combination of 3D data from different 3D sensors and information from different sources in order to meet set resolution targets. We used a prototype multi-resolution 3D laser imaging scanner that allowed acquiring the shape information of the three main chambers with a spatial resolution that improves with shorter standoffs. The system can record 3D data at a camera-to-object distance which ranges from 0.5 m to 10 m. At a standoff of 0.75 m, it provides a depth uncertainty of 0.08 mm and an optical lateral resolution of 0.2 mm on actual rock surfaces. This paper presents the project and the results obtained. The 10-day long visit into the Grotto generated more that 100 GB of 2D and 3D data that requires the development of new tools for modelling and managing the archive.
Destroying Cultural Heritage: Technical, Emotional and Exhibition Aspects in Simulating Earthquake Effects on a Gothic Cathedral
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Chittaro, Luca; Ranon, Roberto; Corvaglia, Demis; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
While a significant research effort has been devoted to produce virtual reconstructions of cultural heritage, the issue of reproducing the effects of natural or man-provoked disasters (e.g., earthquakes, floods, wars) on cultural heritage has received much less attention. Moreover, presenting these events with multimedia installations on museums requires to consider how to properly convey the dramatic aspects of the experience besides the faithful simulation of the damage caused. In this paper, we focus specifically on earthquakes and their effects on historical buildings.We present the methodology we have followed to produce a museum experience of a real earthquake that struck a gothic cathedral. We discuss technical (e.g., building a 3D model that is suitable to the considered purpose), emotional (e.g., testing the exhibit with pilot studies on users), and exhibition aspects (e.g., using infrasound to increase the realism of the experience and the dramatic feelings it evokes).
An Ontology for 3D Cultural Objects
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Niccolucci, Franco; D'Andrea, Andrea; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
3D cultural objects are digital 3D replicas of objects having a cultural value, as models of artefacts, reconstructions of buildings, sites and landscapes. As such, they have a twofold nature, and inherit properties both from their digital nature, like the shape and texture, and from the cultural content, for instance to be used for scholarly purposes or communication to the public. In some cases, one of the natures prevails on the other. This may be the case because the object is being processed, e.g. visualized on a computer, or scrutinized by heritage scholars for review. In a few others, it is unfortunately the user s narrow-minded attitude that leads to take into account only one nature of such an object and neglect the other. It is therefore necessary to explore a way of documenting 3D cultural objects that keeps together all the relevant information, both the cultural and the digital one. In this paper we propose an ontology for such complex objects that owns the following important properties: i) it is sufficiently general to encompass very different artefacts, from pottery sherds to historical landscapes; ii) it fully complies with international standards for heritage, in this case CIDOC-CRM, of which it can be shown to be a specialization/ extension; iii) it is sufficiently simple to be used and understood by heritage practitioners and professionals with moderate computer skills, and documents items in a plain, human readable and understandable way; iv) items documented as instances of this ontology can be efficiently processed for the most frequent purposes, as computer visualization, retrieval of cultural information or storage in a database; v) it is ready for compliance with other important requirements, as for instance the proposed charter on credibility known as London Charter.
ICT Investment Considerations and their Influence on the Socio-Economic Impact of Heritage Sites
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) McLoughlin, Jim; Kaminski, Jaime; Sodagar, Babak; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
The following methodological model can be used as a platform for the study of the impact of information and communications technologies (ICT) at cultural heritage sites. The model has been developed through extensive, in-depth interviews with curators, directors and stakeholders at many cultural heritage sites across Europe. The underling strength of this model is its versatility. Although the model is oriented towards the investment in, and deployment of, ICT at heritage sites it is fundamentally about understanding the process of investment and so could be modified for many investment decisions.
A Parametric Exploration of the Lighting Method of the Hagia Sophia Dome
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Jabi, Wassim; Potamianos, Iakovos; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
Byzantine church design depended heavily on natural light for the generation of evocative effects supportive of the liturgical acts taking place in it. It appears that there were several effects coordinated in order to strengthen the impression of divine presence within the church. The method of ritual lighting reveals a sophisticated level of design in Byzantine churches involving a number of issues which must have formed a complete and integrated system. Specifically, one of these effects concerns the generation of light shafts within the church apse and a derivative apse geometry; a second effect concerns the lighting of the dome; a third effect concerns the church proportions in respect to the way its interior spaces ought to be viewed as well as a number of other relevant issues. Some of this work has been presented in various papers, conferences, and speeches. However, recently we have employed parametric modeling as a tool that helps us comprehend more fully and accurately the design strategies and methods involved as well as revise erroneous assumptions made in the initial stages of this research. The present paper aims at exploring the effect of the luminous dome through the aid of a 3D model focusing specifically in the system developed for the initial dome of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. While this idea has been previously explored theoretically, the 3D model provides us with more accurate results, verifies some of our conclusions and refutes others becoming in this way not only an indispensable tool that allows us to reach a more detailed and clear exploration of our initial assumptions.
Watermarking and Digital Rights Management - A Pilot DRM System Implementation and Technical Guidelines to Cultural Digitization Projects
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Tsolis, Dimitrios K.; Nikolopoulos, Spiridon N.; Karatzas, Emmanouil G.; Sioutas, Spiridon A.; Hondrou, E. A.; Mouriki, A. I.; Georgiadou, A. A.; Papatheodorou, Theodore S.; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
The issue addressed in this paper is at first a brief presentation of the Technical Guidelines for IPR protection and management applied to Greek cultural digitization projects. Secondly, the work focuses on the analysis and implementation of a typical Digital Rights Management System for organizations and projects aiming at the digitization and exploitation of cultural content. Both Technical Guidelines and the DRMS are setting a solid framework for providing answers to a crucial and complex issue, the issue of the protection and management of intellectual property rights for analog and digital content.
Multi-Spectral Laser Scanning for Inspection of Building Surfaces - State of the Art and Future Concepts
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Wehr, Aloysius; Hemmleb, Matthias; Maierhofer, Chr.; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) developed a multi-spectral laser scanner to demonstrate the advantages of such systems for the inspection of building surfaces. It is shown that damage of building surfaces, caused by enhanced moisture content and/or vegetation, can be recorded automatically with a high signal-to-noise ratio by using four continuous wave semiconductor lasers at different wavelengths for the defined illumination of the object surface. It is worked out that the damaged areas can be identified by applying commercial multi-spectral image processing software. Finally a concept is presented to improve the overall performance of the system with regard to sampling speed and sensitivity. Here the cw lasers are modulated by sinusoidal signals of different frequencies and the intensity of the backscattered laser light is detected by synchronous demodulation. Furthermore, these structured signals can be used for slant range measurements. Knowing the slant for each pixel, three dimensional multi-spectral images are obtained
A Concept for the Separation of Foreground/ Background in Arabic Historical Manuscripts using Hybrid Methods
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Boussellaa, Wafa; Abed, Haikal El; Zahour, A.; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
This paper presents a new color document image segmentation system suitable for historical Arabic manuscripts. Our system is composed of a hybrid method which couple together background light intensity normalization algorithm and k-means clustering with maximum likelihood (ML) estimation, for foreground/ background separation. Firstly, the background normalization algorithm performs separation between foreground and background. This foreground is used in later steps. Secondly, our algorithm proceeds on luminance and distort the contrast. These distortions are corrected with a gamma correction and contrast adjustment. Finally, the new enhanced foreground image is segmented to foreground/background on the basis of ML estimation. The initial parameters for the ML method are estimated by k-means clustering algorithm. The segmented image is used to produce a final restored document image. The techniques are tested on a set of Arabic historical manuscripts documents from the National Tunisian Library. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated on by real color manuscripts distorted with show-through effects, uneven background color and localized spot.
Mosaic Rendering using Colored Paper
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Gi, Yong Jea; Park, Young Sup; Seo, Sang Hyun; Yoon, Kyoung Hyun; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
This paper proposes a new method of simulating colored paper mosaic using computer graphics technologies. This new method focuses on two problems that need to be taken care of in order to simulate colored paper mosaic. The first one is tile generation and the other one is tile arrangement. To get similar result in real art work, we create colored paper object with simple structure. Then, we generate torn colored paper tile by applying voronoi diagram and others to colored paper object. At last, we come up with result images by arranging torn colored paper tile appropriately according to energy function.
Restoration of Color in Noh Masks Based on Retinex Algorithm
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Yin, Xin; Miichi, Yasuo; Tanaka, Hiromi T.; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
Noh is a famous traditional Japanese dramatic art. The restoration of ancient Noh masks is an important aspect of the preservation of cultural heritage. In this paper, we developed a technique based on Retinex algorithm and it can be applied to restore the color of 3D objects such as the Noh mask. The Retinex algorithm simulates the ability of human eye and can adjust the color of the 2D image. To apply the Retinex algorithm on the 3D surface, the shape of the object is taken into account. The original color of the target points can be got by reference to the color of the surrounding points sampled according to a uniform route. The effectiveness of this technique is demonstrated by the implementation results. This technique can be used to infer the color of other 3D objects also.
On the Digital Reconstruction and Interactive Presentation of Heritage Sites through Time
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) El-Hakim, Sabry F.; MacDonald, George; Lapointe, Jean-François; Gonzo, Lorenzo; Jemtrud, Michael; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
Virtual time travel from existing remains of a heritage site to its previous states and original condition is an educational and interesting experience and can provide better understanding of history. However, digitally reconstructing non-existing objects is a challenge. The interaction and navigation within virtual 4D worlds (adding time to 3D worlds) is also problematical due to the time dimension. In this paper we developed an approach to modelling of heritage sites that has undergone changes over the years. The method creates independent models from different types of data, such as frescos and paintings, drawings, old photos, historic descriptions, and digitization of remains, then assembles and integrates these models for an interactive presentation. Several research issues had to be addressed: (1) Modelling from frescos and drawings with incorrect perspective, (2) modelling from paintings and old photos including fine geometric details from shading (3) colouring models from old photos and drawings to match the colours of existing elements, (4) the seamless and accurate integration of models created independently from different sets of data, and (5) the creation of intuitive interactive presentation that combines all the models and other useful information. We provide contributions to these issues, including our own advanced model viewer, and apply them to modelling of: destroyed Haida house of Chief Weah (Masset, Canada), the demolished and partially relocated Rideau Chapel (Ottawa, Canada), and the Stenico castle (Trentino, Italy) which undergone many changes over several centuries. Each of these diverse examples illustrates different approach for reconstructing heritage sites that changed through time.
High Quality PTM Acquisition: Reflection Transformation Imaging for Large Objects
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Dellepiane, Matteo; Corsini, Massimiliano; Callieri, Marco; Scopigno, Roberto; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
Reflection Transformation Imaging has proved to be a powerful method to acquire and represent the 3D reflectance properties of an object, displaying them as a 2D image. Recently, Polynomial Texture Maps (PTM), which are relightable images created from a set of photos of the object taken under several different lighting conditions, have been used in Cultural Heritage field to document and virtually inspect several sets of small objects, such as cuneiform tablets and coins. In this paper we explore the possibility of producing high quality PTM of medium or large size objects. The aim is to analyze the acquisition pipeline, resolving all the issues related to the size of the object, and the conditions of acquisition. We will discuss issues regarding acquisition planning and data gathering. We also present a new tool to interactively browse high resolution PTMs. Moreover, we perform some quality assessment considerations, in order to study the degradation of quality of the PTMs respect to the number and position of lights used to acquire the PTM. The results of our acquisition system are presented with some examples of PTMs of large artifacts like a sarcophagus of 2.4 × 1 m size. PTM can be a good alternative to 3D scanning for capturing and representing certain class of objects, like bas-relieves, having lower costs in terms of acquisition equipment and data processing time.
Current Practice in Digital Imaging in UK Archaeology
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Chuter, Alice; Devlin, Kate; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
The field of archaeology relies heavily on photography as a way of recording information about sites and artefacts. It is therefore essential that we can have confidence in the photographic record, as any changes over time can result in information being lost forever. In the past five years digital imaging has become a potential alternative to traditional film photography. However, this has great implications, as both methods have very different advantages and disadvantages. Most notably, if the rise in digital photography in the heritage sector mirrors that of current public trends, there is a danger that digital preservation issues could be neglected. We undertook a survey of photographic practice among archaeologists in the UK in order to gain an insight into the prominence of digital photography for recording our past. This paper presents and analyses our results.
Towards a Photogrammetry and Virtual Reality Based Heritage Information System: A Case Study of Shawbak Castle in Jordan
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Drap, Pierre; Durand, Anne; Nedir, Malika; Seinturier, Julien; Papini, Odile; Boucault, Florian; Chapman, Paul; Viant, Warren; Vannini, Guido; Nuccioti, Michele; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
The paper presents an interdisciplinary project which is the first step towards a 3D Geographical Information System (GIS) dedicated to Cultural Heritage with a specific focus application on the Castle of Shawbak, also known as the "Crac de Montréal" in Jordan. Current 3D GIS already provide support for urban models on a city scale. Our project however focuses on a building scale encompassing its atomic elements such as ashlars blocks, cement, stratigraphic unit and architectonic elements. At this scale we need a full 3D interface in order to manage accurate measurements and a mainly heterogeneous archaeological documentation. The project is conducted by four laboratories: the MAP-GAMSAU located in the school of Architecture of Marseilles, France in charge of the photogrammetric survey phase; The LSIS laboratory, France, will be in charge of the knowledge based approach; SimVis from The Department of Computer Science, University of Hull, UK, for the virtual reality aspect and of course the "Dipartimento di Studi storici e Geografici" from the University of Florence, Italy, in charge of the archaeological part. To manage these archaeological data the project is divided into three phases: The survey phase: using a knowledge based photogrammetric tool, Arpenteur (http://www.arpenteur.net), the photogrammetric campaign ensures a survey founded on archaeological knowledge and directly linked with a database built by archaeologists. The objective here is to link an already existing archaeological database with a photogrammetric tool in order to simplify the photogrammetric process. Our goal here is to offer to the archaeology community a new tool for surveying where technical photogrammetric aspects are more or less hidden from the surveyor. The second phase is the use of the knowledge base to ensure data consistency through a complex and multi-user survey phase. Based on data fusion coming from different sources, this phase will ensure a reversible way to merge several partial surveys exploiting the complementarities between sources, solving different existing conflicts and reducing the possible redundancies. This fusion process deals with archaeological information as well as spatial information. Finally we need a high resolution interface between the final geometry and the archaeological database. Virtual reality using interactive immersive devices and specially designed software tools is an efficient method for revisiting the site and for analysing, updating and revising knowledge. This project described in this paper is work in progress. After three photogrammetric campaigns in Jordan the first results are available on the project web site: http://www.shawbak.net
Digital Terrain Modelling for Archaeological Interpretation within Forested Areas using Full-Waveform Laserscanning
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Doneus, Michael; Briese, C.; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
The identification of sites within forested areas is one of the remaining unresolved issues for archaeological prospection. Airborne laser scanning can be a solution to this problem: due to the capability of penetrating forest to a certain degree (depending on the vegetation density) the determination of the terrain surface is even possible in wooded areas. To be able to identify archaeological structures, archaeologists have to interpret the resulting topographical data of a filtered ALS scan. This does not pose major problems with large structures. Smaller features, however, are much more difficult to identify, because their appearance in an ALS point cloud is very similar to natural and recent features, as for example dense brushwood, or piles of twigs or wood. Therefore, to eliminate potential sources of error, a high quality separation of terrain and off-terrain points is essential for archaeological interpretation while maintaining a high point density of the ALS data. Using conventional ALS systems, the possibilities to classify terrain and off-terrain points are limited and the results - especially in forested areas with dense understorey - are far from ideal for archaeological purposes. This paper will demonstrate how the new generation of full-waveform ALS systems can be used to get a much better classification of solid ground and vegetation cover and consequently DTMs, which can be interpreted archaeologically with much more confidence.
Reflecting on the Creation of an Authentic Aural Experience in the Digital Songlines Game Engine: Part of a Contextualised Cultural Heritage Knowledge Toolkit
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Gibbons, C.; Wyeld, Theodor G.; Leavy, B.; Hills, J.; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
Digital Songlines is an Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design (ACID) project that is developing protocols, methodologies and toolkits to facilitate the collection, education and sharing of indigenous cultural heritage knowledge. The project explores the areas of effective recording, content management and virtual reality delivery capabilities that are culturally sensitive and involve the indigenous custodians, leaders and communities in remote areas of the Australian outback . It investigates how players in a serious gaming sense can experience Indigenous virtual heritage in a high fidelity fashion with culturally appropriate interface tools. This paper describes the circumstances that gave rise to the concept of a 3D ambient audio quilt, designed and implemented specifically for the Digital Songlines game-engine software. It discusses the importance of a site visit to a remote location in the north-east of the Australian outback, and how this prompted the discovery of a new method for creating an authentic aural experience in a 3DVE. This paper reports on completed and ongoing research in this area.
Combining Laser Scanning and Photogrammetry - A Hybrid Approach for Heritage Documentation
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Haala, Norbert; Alshawabkeh, Yahya; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
High quality 3D models of cultural heritage sites can be generated efficiently by laser scanning, which allows the accurate and dense measurement of surface geometry. In addition to the geometric data collection, texture mapping based on additionally collected digital imagery is particular important for this type of application. This requires a combined processing of range and image data sets. For this purpose, they have to be registered or aligned by a suitable transformation to a common reference coordinate system. The involved transformation parameters can be determined based on corresponding elements to be extracted from the different data sets. In the paper an efficient edge detection algorithm is presented, which allows for the automatic segmentation of such primitives even in complex scenes. In order to achieve a high quality 3D photo-realistic mode,l this alignment process has to be followed by an automatic texture mapping, which is discussed in the second part of the paper. The presented algorithms are demonstrated in the framework of a project aiming at the generation of a 3D virtual model of the Al-Khasneh, a well-known monument in Petra, and a Roman Theatre in ancient Jerash city, Jordan.
Deconstructing the VR - Data Transparency, Quantified Uncertainty and Reliability of 3D Models
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Hermon, Sorin; Nikodem, Joanna; Perlingieri, Cinzia; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
The paper discusses two key concepts required for the use of Virtual Reality and 3D modelling as a research tool for the humanities: data transparency -what is the type and nature of the archaeological/historical/ethnographical material on which the 3D model is based, and reliability - how the user can scientifically analyse the model. In this article, we will presenta solution to these issues based on concepts deriving from fuzzy logic and fuzzy sets. Taking into consideration the "real nature " of humanities data, more often fuzzy than crisp, a different logic (fuzzy logic) should be applied when attempting to reconstruct a past reality. This will enable a quantifiable visualization of possible scenarios, otherwise discarded in traditional representations. Each scenario is accompanied with a "reliability index", estimated by the researcher according to his/her certainty on the existence of the modelled part and the "importance" of each component of the model. This approach will allow the user to reconstruct the "cognitive process" and the step-by-step "decision making" of the researcher that built the 3D model, and to open the model to a scientific analysis from a humanities point of view.
Procedural 3D Reconstruction of Puuc Buildings in Xkipché
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Müller, Pascal; Vereenooghe, Tijl; Wonka, Peter; Paap, Iken; Gool, Luc Van; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
This paper examines how architectural shape grammars can be used to procedurally generate 3D reconstructions of an archaeological site. The Puuc-style buildings found in Xkipché, Mexico, were used as a test-case. We first introduce the ancient Mayan site of Xkipché and give an overview of the building types as distinguished by the archaeologists, based on excavations and surveys of the building remains at the surface. Secondly, we outline the elements of the building design that are characteristic of the Puuc architecture. For the creation of the actual building geometries, we further determine the shape grammar rules for the different architectural parts. The modeling system can then be used to reconstruct the whole site based on various GIS (Geographical Information Systems) data given as input, such as building footprints, architectural information, and elevation. The results demonstrate that our modeling system is, in contrast to traditional 3D modeling, able to efficiently construct a large number of high quality geometric models at low cost.
Haptic Navigation and Exploration of High Quality Pre-rendered Environments
(The Eurographics Association, 2006) Laycock, Robert George; Laycock, Stephen David; Day, Andy M.; Marinos Ioannides and David Arnold and Franco Niccolucci and Katerina Mania
Visualising in real-time high quality virtual environments, which are suitable for cultural heritage and virtual tourism, is often a challenging endeavour. This is primarily, due to the cost of rendering complex architectural structures. Incorporating the sense of touch into real time environments enhances a user's experience, leading towards a higher level of immersion. However, the confining requirement of the haptic feedback loop to cycle at 1000Hz has led to many applications employing lower quality scenes. In this paper a technique is presented which permits high quality pre-rendered animations of dynamic environments to be both visualised and navigated at high interactive rates. In particular, the approach provides the user with the ability to touch the content of the animations and to freely orientate themselves in any direction, leading to haptically aware movies. Consequently, this permits an exploration of an otherwise prohibitively complex scene consisting of large volumes of geometry and texture maps, combined with realistic lighting models. This component is illustrated within a virtual tour framework enabling users to navigate semi-prescribed routes using haptic feedback both in a spatial and temporal context.

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