VAST08: The 9th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Intelligent Cultural Heritage

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3D Enhanced Model from Multiple Data Sources for the Analysis of the Cylinder Seal of Ibni-Sharrum
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Pitzalis, Denis; Cignoni, Paolo; Menu, Michel; Aitken, Genevieve; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
In this paper we present the result of the integration of multiple data sources of different 3D acquisition techniques. These acquisitions have been done in order to create a new way to document works of art that have been applied to the "Cylinder seal of Ibni-Sharrum". X-ray tomography has been used to reveal the exact position of inclusions and the presence fissure in the mineral structure; optical micro topography gives the prints of the surface of the seal with a unparallelled precision of up to 0.1μm. Finally a lower resolution 3D model obtained via photogrammetry has been used as a starting point where the tomographic and micro topographic data sets have been superimposed and integrated without precision loss. Furthermore, the textures obtained from HDR photographs has been registered and merged onto the high resolution mesh. These methods have pros and cons that will be discussed and the final obtained model will be the sum of all the complementary cons. The final result of this interdisciplinary investigation will help the curator to better describe the fabrication techniques used in order to achieve the final object and a contemporary artist to do a reproduction of the cylinder at a scale of 1000:1.
3D Modeling of Large and Complex Site Using Multi-sensor Integration and Multi-resolution Data
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Guidi, Gabriele; Remondino, Fabio; Russo, Michele; Menna, Fabio; Rizzi, Alessandro; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
The article describes a multi-resolution approach developed for the 3D modeling of the entire Roman Forum in Pompeii, Italy. The archaeological area, approximately 150 x 80 m, contains more than 350 finds spread all over the Forum as well as larger mural structures of previous buildings and temples. The interdisciplinary 3D modeling work consists of a multi-scale image- and range-based digital documentation method developed to fulfil all the surveying and archaeological needs and exploit all the potentialities of the actual 3D modeling techniques. Data's resolution spans from few decimetres down to few millimetres, both in geometry and texture. The employed surveying methodologies have pros and cons which will be addressed and discussed. The first results of the integration of the different 3D data in a unique and seamless textured 3D model will be presented.
Accurate Modelling of Roman Lamps in Conimbriga using High Dynamic Range
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Gonçalves, Alexandrino José Marques; Magalhães, Luís Gonzaga; Moura, João Paulo; Chalmers, Alan; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
The Human Visual System has a remarkable ability to acquire colour and contrast of all the things that surround us. This is particularly evident in extreme lighting conditions such as bright light or dark environments. However, it is simply not possible to represent such a range of lighting on a typical display today. This is about to change. The field of High Dynamic Range (HDR) imagery allows us to capture and display the full range of human vision. The use of technologies in the preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage can play an important role in the representation and interpretation of our past legacy. A major field of application is virtual reconstructions of ancient historical environments. In this domain, the way we see such (reconstructed) environments is particularly important in order to establish a correct interpretation of that historical setting. In this paper we present a case study of the reconstruction of a Roman site. We generate HDR images of mosaics and frescoes from one of the most impressive monuments in the ruins of Conimbriga, Portugal, an ancient city of the Roman Empire. We show that the HDR viewing paradigm is well suited for archaeological interpretation, since its high contrast and chromaticity can disclose and present us an enhanced viewing experience, closer to how the artefacts may have been perceived in the past. To achieve the requisite level of precision, in addition to a precise geometric 3D model, it is crucial to integrate in the virtual simulation authentic physical data of the light used in the period under consideration. Thereby in order to create a realistic physical based environment we use in our lighting simulations real data obtained from Roman luminaries of that time.
The Arrigo Showcase Reloaded - towards a sustainable link between 3D and semantics
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Havemann, Sven; Settgast, Volker; Berndt, René; Eide, Øyvind; Fellner, Dieter W.; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
It is still a big technical problem to establish a relation between a shape and its meaning in a sustainable way. We present a solution with a markup method that allows to label parts of a 3D object in a similar way to labeling parts of a hypertext. A 3D-markup can serve both as hyperlink and as link anchor, which is the key to bi-directional linking between 3D objects and web documents. Our focus is on a sustainable 3D software infrastructure for application scenarios ranging from e-mail and internet over authoring and browsing semantic networks to interactive museum presentations. We demonstrate the workflow and the effectiveness of our tools by re-doing the Arrigo 3D showcase. We are working towards a 'best practice' example for information modeling in cultural heritage.
Authoring Tools for Archaeological Mobile Guides
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Linaza, Maria Teresa; Torre, Isabel; Beusing, Ruth; Tavernise, Assunta; Etz, Markus; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
Mobile tourist guides are increasingly useful once the visitors are in the archaeological sites. They are capable of providing huge amount of information about the sites. As it is easily understood, the selection of such information is a task that must be conducted by cultural institutions. Therefore, this paper aims at simplifying the provision of useful multimedia information in a user-friendly and attractive way. In order to achieve this goal, an authoring tool for non-expert users has been implemented, so that they will be able to contribute to mobile guides independently from the structure and the type and formats of the contents that will be added.The tool includes the possibility of defining several layers to provide the information with a split architecture, so that the creator of the guide can decide which contents to include and the languages in which the guide will be provided. This tool has been validated in several archaeological sites in order to build interactive multilingual mobile guides based on the J2ME standard.
Automatic Reconstruction of Virtual Heritage Sites
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Rodrigues, Nuno; Magalhães, Luís Gonzaga; Moura, João Paulo; Chalmers, Alan; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
The virtual reconstruction of heritage sites has been the focus of many projects. These typically involve significant use of manual reconstruction techniques, and thus a great deal of human effort to create the virtual structures. Also, often, there is not sufficient physical evidence to recreate these structures precisely as they may have been in the past. To address these issues a domain specific modelling method for the automatic generation of virtual heritage structures is presented in this paper. The method is guided by heritage knowledge about the construction rules of heritage structures, encoded in a formal grammar, and may be used to create new structures automatically. The case study entails the automatic reconstruction of the archaeological site of Conimbriga, in Portugal, which contains the ruins of an ancient city of the Roman Empire. The results show the generation of a virtual reconstruction of a particular house, the House of the Skeletons, which had an important relevance to the city because of its architecture.
Back to 2nd AD A VR on-line experience with Virtual Rome Project
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Pescarin, Sofia; Calori, L.; Camporesi, C.; Ioia, M. Di; Forte, M.; Galeazzi, F.; Imboden, S.; Moro, A.; Palombini, A.; Vassallo, V.; Vico, L.; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
The Virtual Rome Project, commissioned by Seat Yellow Pages and the Italian Chamber of Commerce, has developed a VR webGIS application, with front-end and back-end on line solutions, for the interpretation, reconstruction and 3d exploration of archaeological and potential past landscapes of Rome. The purpose is the creation of a three-dimensional open source environment, embedded in a web-browser. The web application has two components: a front end that let the final user interactively explore the reconstructed space and a back end (still in development) that helps researchers to consistently build up the data structures needed to the complex activity of landscape reconstruction. At present the archaeological and ancient landscape of Rome has been reconstructed with variable resolution and accuracy (generally w 10-100 Mt, selected areas near via Flaminia, via Appia and Imperial Fora, with a resolution of 20 cm). Sites, monuments and archaeological areas are connected with their context and are reconstructed in accordance with real and hypothetical topographies both for the present day and for the past. We will describe the process of contents and software development as well as the methodological approach to ancient landscape reconstruction. The paper discusses also some problematic aspects that the Virtual Rome on line application had to face, both from archaeological and ICT points of view: reliability of reconstructed past landscape; the reconstruction as open and scientific process; large territory dataset on line management (32 GB of high resolution aerial images); different coordinate systems and data resolutions integration; 3d models complexity and dimension (texture and geometry) integration and efficient exploration; vegetation integration; continuous interaction for inter and intra-site browsing and plug-in integration in the browsers most commonly used. We present solutions to further develop the back-end VR webGIS builder, in order to allow a continuous modification of the landscape and the integration of different projects, to realize a 3d cooperative environment and a reference point for virtual communities.
Color Enhancement for Rapid Prototyping
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Cignoni, Paolo; Gobbetti, Enrico; Pintus, Ruggero; Scopigno, Roberto; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
We propose to exploit the color capabilities of recent rapid prototyping hardware devices to enhance the visual appearance of reproduced objects. In particular, by carefully pre-computing surface shading, we are able to counterbalance the sub-surface scattering (SSS) effects that hinder the perception of fine surface details. As a practical result, we are able to reproduce small scale copies of cultural heritage artifacts with an increased readability of the tiniest features and particulars, without requiring manual post-reproduction interventions or hand painting
Cutaneous Tactile Synthesis for Cultural Heritage Exhibition
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Yin, Xin; Nomura, Kazuyoshi; Tanaka, Hiromi T.; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
The objects such as heritage objects can not be touched directly. Hence, some haptic devices were developed to permit users touch digital objects surface. These studies mainly confuse on developing haptic hardware, and the algorithm for synthesizing input signals were not studied well. A surface roughness measurement and input vibration signal synthesis techniques are proposed. To measure the surface roughness, some photos are taken using a fixed camera when the lighting changes its incidence direction. A surface normal image is obtained from these photos. Then vibration signal as input signal of cutaneous tactile device is synthesized. Adding the friction sound, the cutaneous tactile is enhanced and can got touch feeling well even using simple vibration tactile device. The system is consisted by 3D visual display, force feedback device and vibration tactile device. The effect of this system is demonstrated using virtual ancient heritage objects at the end.
Heritage Pieces Integration in Autonomous Augmented Reality Systems: Key problems and Solutions
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Martin, Alberto; Pérez, Emiliano; Salamanca, Santiago; Merchan, Pilar; Adan, Antonio; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
Nowadays virtual reality users and professionals demand a growing quality and a higher degree of realism in development and applications. Among these technologies augmented reality systems stand out due to their complexity and possibilities, having open current problems from the digitalization process to the accurate insertion of digital information in the reality. This paper is addressed to present solutions to key problems that arise in these environments which the 3D Computer Vision and Robotics (UCLM) group has been working on over the last two years. The final objective is to extend and complete the real visual information perceived by the user superimposing three-dimensional information synthesized with a high degree of realism. Our research is focused on two aspects that converge towards the same objective. The first objective is to carry out a reverse engineering process on valuable heritage pieces with the aim of obtaining complete and realistic models. This is a field where current technology itself is not capable of yielding a complete and satisfactory answer. Here we present solutions to two of the most important issues which many researchers continue working on: automatic filling holes in 3D meshes and color integration in the geometrical model through view fusion techniques. The second objective concerns the problem of the insertion of virtual models in the image captured by one or more cameras. Current display as well as positioning devices solves most of the AR problems in controlled environments. Nevertheless, a more interesting matter, on which notable research efforts are being carried out, are focused on the positioning aspects in external and non controlled environments. In this paper, we describe an efficient solution with low computational cost that allows us to carry out autonomous augmented reality sessions in free environments.
Multi-resolution Modeling of Complex and Detailed Cultural Heritage
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Remondino, Fabio; Girardi, Stefano; Gonzo, Lorenzo; Rizzi, Alessandro; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
The article reports the interdisciplinary project of the virtualization of the Great Inscription of Gortyna (Crete) for 3D documentation, structural studies and physical replica purposes. The digitization of the longest epigraphic text of the Greek civilization (6 m long and 1.75 m high, with ca 2-3 mm depth engraved letters) and its surrounding heritage area (ca 30 x 30 m), required a long planning and the construction of a dedicated acquisition system to speed up the surveying time, limited to few hours per day. Primarily range sensors were employed in a multi-resolution way, digitizing detailed parts in highresolution and less smoothed areas with lower geometric resolution. Some selected areas were also modeled with our multi-photo geometrically constrained image matching approach to demonstrate that the same accuracy and details can be achieved using either scanners or photogrammetry. The derived 3D model of the heritage is now the basis for further archaeological studies on the incision techniques and a deeper structural analysis on the monument. The challenges of the work stay in the acquisition, processing and integration of the multi-resolution data as well as their visualization.
On the Use of Computer Vision for Numismatic Research
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Zambanini, Sebastian; Kampel, Martin; Schlapke, Mario; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
This paper gives a survey about numismatic research fields where computer vision methods have the potential to improve the effectiveness and impact of research work. In total, five different parts of numismatic research areas are identified: the classification of coins into given types, the identification of concrete coin specimens, the identification of coins struck by the same die, the reassembling of broken coin fragments and the segmentation and surveying of coins. For each application a problem description is given and the use of computer vision methods is discussed in detail. Additionally, for the image-based classification, identification and segmentation of coins results achieved so far are presented. Since computer vision methods are applied on photographs of coins, their acquisition (both in 2D and 3D) is covered as well
A Peer to Peer Network Environment for Optimized Digital Rights Management of Digital Cultural Heritage
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Tsolis, Dimitrios; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
As a general protection measure for copyright violations through digital technologies including peer to peer (P2P), copyright owners often uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) techniques to encrypt and watermark content or otherwise restrict access, totally blocking digital content to be accessed through the Internet and the P2P infrastructure. This paper claims that DRM and P2P can be quite complementary. Specifically, a P2P infrastructure is presented which allows broad digital content exchange while on the same time supports copyright protection and management through DRM technologies
Personalizing Virtual and Augmented Reality for Cultural Heritage Indoor and Outdoor Experiences
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Liarokapis, Fotis; Sylaiou, Stella; Mountain, David; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
Most cultural heritage exhibitions, both indoor and outdoor, could benefit from context-aware and personalized museum guides. Although, technological advancements in digitization, digital storage, visualisation and interaction have evolved rapidly, the current generation of museum exhibition and mobile guides offer systems with restricted capabilities and content, for example user selected audio guides and interactive touch screen kiosks. This paper presents solutions for both museum exhibitions and mobile guides moving towards a unifying framework based on open standards. This can offer more customisable experiences attracting and engaging a broader spectrum of users. Our solution takes into account the diverse needs of visitors to heritage and mobile guide exhibitions allowing for multimedia representations of the same content but using diverse interfaces including a web, a map, a virtual reality and an augmented reality domain. Different case studies illustrate the majority of the capabilities of the multimodal interfaces used and also how personalisation and customisation can be performed in both kiosk and mobile guide exhibitions to meet user needs.
Real-time Visualisation of Multiple Time dependent Reconstruction Hypotheses for a Cultural Heritage Site
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Laycock, Stephen D.; Laycock, Robert G.; Drinkwater, David; Day, Andy M.; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
Virtual environments have commonly been used for the dissemination, education and public awareness of cultural heritage, owing to the medium s ability to provide an engaging and interactive exhibit. However, virtual environments have yet to be fully utilised as a tool to enhance the work flow for the archaeologist. When attempting to understand a particular cultural heritage site, a variety of data sources and technologies are employed, resulting in potentially conflicting hypotheses regarding the development of a site through time. It is particularly challenging to quantify the validity of a hypothesis without viewing it within the spatial and temporal context. This paper presents new interactive techniques for the exploration of such alternative interpretations for a large cultural heritage site. To illustrate the utility of the presented approach interpretations of St. Andrew s Monastic complex, Norwich, UK, are considered. The data set comprises of more than two hundred individual components, totalling in excess of five million triangles, ranging from 1258AD to present day. Techniques are presented to process the three dimensional models and utilise consumer level hardware to visualise it in real-time. All navigation is undertaken with a haptic interface, which aside from scene traversal permits different portions of space to be selected and for the objects occupying that space to be regressed or alternative reconstructions to be presented.
Reality Filtering: A Visual Time Machine in Augmented Reality
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Zoellner, Michael; Pagani, Alain; Pastarmov, Yulian; Wuest, Harald; Stricker, Didier; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
We present Reality Filtering, an application that makes it possible to visualize original content like drawings or paintings of buildings and frescos seamlessly superimposed on reality by using filtered augmented reality. This enables simple and inexpensive applications in the cultural heritage and architecture area. The main idea is that the video stream showing the reality is filtered on the fly to acquire the same presentation style as the virtual objects. This allows for a better integration of original historic content and creates the impression of a virtual time journey. The registration of the virtual objects in the video images is provided by a robust 6DOF tracking framework based on two technologies that work in tandem: an initialization step based on Randomized Trees and a frame-to-frame tracking phase based on KLT. For the initialization, we present the novel concept of temporally distributed computational load (TDCL), which is able to automatically detect and register multiple objects while maintaining a constant video frame rate of 20 frames / sec. For mid- to long-range augmentation a pure 2- dimensional tracking with 3DOF is applicable and leads to significant performance gain. The entire application runs in real time on Ultra Mobile PCs.
Semantic Web, Digital Libraries and the future of Cultural Heritage
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Felicetti, Achille; Mara, Hubert; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
This paper provides an overview regarding the application of the Semantic Web oriented technologies we have developed as part of the EPOCH and AMA projects for Cultural Heritage Digital Libraries. We wanted to enhance interoperability among diverse archives and to make disperse digital information available through the web in a standard format. Our toolset includes an application for mapping existing archive schemas to ontology schemas (AMA Mapping Tool), a tool to recursively markup unstructured text documents (AMA Text Tool) and a Semantic Web Database able to store, query and return simple and complex semantic information (MAD). We used the CIDOC-CRM core ontology to define the entities we dealt with and to describe concepts and relations among them.
A Technology Cocktail for a 3D Photo-Realistic Model of a I Century Roman Fountain: Range Scanning, RTI and Physically Based Rendering
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Barbosa, João; Bernardes, Paulo; Almeida, Matheus; Gomes, Pedro; Gonçalves, Ricardo; Proença, Alberto; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
Archaeology is a science that uses multiple disciplines to ensure the validity of archaeological data and to accurately support theoretical foundations. Archaeology uses computer graphics to create credible virtual representations of archaeological sites and artifacts, which are used for interpretation, research purposes and archiving. Accurate virtual representations of an archaeological site rely on a balanced mixture of techniques, and some are discussed in this communication aplied to a I century roman fountain. Different imaging techniques were integrated - point cloud from a total station, 3D mid-range laser scanning and reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) - where their best features are extracted and combined to get the most accurate data in different scales. A point cloud enables a fair representation of the entire site (macro-scale), including the surrounding environment features. A 3D mid-range scanning captures the surface detail (medium-scale), but it may not be reliable to capture microstructure elements. An RTI technique (such as polynomial texture mapping, PTM) may overcome this limitation, since it can capture the microstructure elements through the surface reflectance properties. A physically based rendering technique (such as the one used by PBRT) can contribute to produce an improved view of an archaeological site, from a virtual 3D model. A collection of open-source software tools is under development to efficiently merge these techniques. This integrated set aims to provide a smooth integration of data gathered on the field, while adequately documenting all processing steps for archival purposes. Obtained results so far are promising and suggest some paths for improvements
Virtual Exploration of Underwater Archaeological Sites: Visualization and Interaction in Mixed Reality Environments
(The Eurographics Association, 2008) Haydar, Mahmoud; Maidi, Madjid; Roussel, David; Mallem, Malik; Drap, Pierre; Bale, Kim; Chapman, Paul; Michael Ashley and Sorin Hermon and Alberto Proenca and Karina Rodriguez-Echavarria
This paper describes the ongoing developments in Photogrammetry and Mixed Reality for the Venus European project (Virtual ExploratioN of Underwater Sites, http://www.venus-project.eu). The main goal of the project is to provide archaeologists and the general public with virtual and augmented reality tools for exploring and studying deep underwater archaeological sites out of reach of divers. These sites have to be reconstructed in terms of environment (seabed) and content (artifacts) by performing bathymetric and photogrammetric surveys on the real site and matching points between geolocalized pictures. The base idea behind using Mixed Reality techniques is to offer archaeologists and general public new insights on the reconstructed archaeological sites allowing archaeologists to study directly from within the virtual site and allowing the general public to immersively explore a realistic reconstruction of the sites. Both activities are based on the same VR engine but drastically differ in the way they present information. General public activities emphasize the visually and auditory realistic aspect of the reconstruction while archaeologists activities emphasize functional aspects focused on the cargo study rather than realism which leads to the development of two parallel VR demonstrators. This paper will focus on several key points developed for the reconstruction process as well as both VR demonstrators (archaeological and general public) issues. The first developed key point concerns the densification of seabed points obtained through photogrammetry in order to obtain high quality terrain reproduction. The second point concerns the development of the Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) demonstrators for archaeologists designed to exploit the results of the photogrammetric reconstruction. And the third point concerns the development of the VR demonstrator for general public aimed at creating awareness of both the artifacts that were found and of the process with which they were discovered by recreating the dive process from ship to seabed.

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