GCH 2021 - Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage

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Automatic Segmentation of Archaeological Fragments with Relief Patterns using Convolutional Neural Networks
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Thompson, Elia Moscoso; Ranieri, Andrea; Biasotti, Silvia; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
The recent commodification of high-quality 3D scanners is leading to the possibility of capturing models of archaeological finds and automatically recognizing their surface reliefs. We present our advancements in this field using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to segment and classify the region around a vertex in a robust way. The network is trained with high-resolution views of the 3D models captured at different angles. The views represent both the model with its original textures and a colorization of the patches according to the value of the Shape Index (SI) in their vertices. The SI encodes local surface variations and we exploit the colorization of the model driven by the SI to generate other view and enrich the dataset. Our method has been validated on a relief recognition benchmark on archaeological fragments proposed within the SHape REtrieval Contest (SHREC) 2018.
Bridging the Discipline Gap: Towards Improving Heritage and Computer Graphics Research Collaboration
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Happa, Jassim; Bennett, Taylor; Gogioso, Stefano; Voiculescu, Irina; Howell, David; Crawford, Sally; Ulmschneider, Katharina; Ramsey, Christopher; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
In this project we are investigating the requirements to ease interdisciplinary collaboration between computer graphics researchers and heritage-related researchers who work with shared graphics-related datasets. We postulate that most challenges can be overcome by ensuring that datasets (irrespective of discipline) are captured, processed and disseminated in ways that accommodate the needs of as many disciplines as possible - making the datasets more useful and more usable. This is not to say that a union of all discipline methodologies is required, but instead: we deem it necessary to identify what changes are feasible in existing (discipline-centric) practices to maximise the benefits, while limiting resource costs. The purpose of this paper is to begin this conversation, present our project, preliminary results and where the project will go next. We also propose the outline of an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewing framework that can be used across disciplines.
Challenges in the Digitisation of a High-reflective Artwork
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Catalano, Chiara Eva; Brunetto, Erika; Mortara, Michela; Pizzi, Corrado; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
In this paper we report about the photogrammetric acquisition and reconstruction of a contemporary artwork, performed by offthe- shelf software. The ceramic piece of art is "Il Libro d'Oro del Terzo Paradiso" ("The Golden Book of the Third Paradise") by Michelangelo Pistoletto, accessed and studied in the framework of a regional project. This artefact is particularly challenging. On the one hand, it is golden coated and, as such, highly reflective. Hence, images are likely to suffer from highlight spots, shadows or self-reflections, and the reconstructed point cloud is typically noisy. On the other hand, the object exhibits simple geometry, mainly composed of planar surfaces, and is highly symmetric; however, it possesses detail features and undercuts. The symmetric nature of the object and reflections misled the image alignment, and the noise in the data turned out to be of the same scale as the detail features. We will discuss all the steps of the process, aimed at obtaining a high quality and accurate 3D model using low-cost tools.
Direct Elastic Unrollings of Painted Pottery Surfaces from Sparse Image Sets
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Houska, Peter; Lengauer, Stefan; Karl, Stephan; Preiner, Reinhold; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
An important task in archaeological research is the comparison of painted motifs on ancient vessels and the analysis of their painting style. Ideally, the pottery objects are available as scanned 3D models, from which the painted surface can be unrolled and potential distortions minimized, so that the vase painting and its individual motifs can be directly inspected. Unfortunately, the percentage of digitally captured vessels is small compared to the large body of cataloged photographs. In this paper, we present a method that creates distortion-minimized unrollings of painted pottery surfaces directly from a small set of photographs. We achieve this by exploiting prior knowledge about the data, namely that most objects exhibit rotational symmetry and that strict guidelines were followed when capturing photographs of the ancient vases. Based on the distinctly visible object silhouettes in the photographs we are able to extract proxy geometries of the objects which we encode as per-view geometric maps. By stitching the single-view data, we obtain a combined map capturing the geometry and texture of the entire painted surface. This enables us to minimize typical projective distortions by elastic relaxation. Our pipeline works entirely in 2D image space, circumventing time-consuming 3D scans and surface reconstructions of (often inaccessible) vessels. Using a combination of CPU-based image processing and GPU-based relaxation, results are produced in only a few minutes.
Exploiting Neighboring Pixels Similarity for Effective SV-BRDF Reconstruction from Sparse MLICs
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Pintus, Ruggero; Ahsan, Moonisa; Marton, Fabio; Gobbetti, Enrico; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
We present a practical solution to create a relightable model from Multi-light Image Collections (MLICs) acquired using standard acquisition pipelines. The approach targets the difficult but very common situation in which the optical behavior of a flat, but visually and geometrically rich object, such as a painting or a bas relief, is measured using a fixed camera taking few images with a different local illumination. By exploiting information from neighboring pixels through a carefully crafted weighting and regularization scheme, we are able to efficiently infer subtle per-pixel analytical Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions (BRDFs) representations from few per-pixel samples. The method is qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated on both synthetic data and real paintings in the scope of image-based relighting applications.
Fully Automatic Mechanical Scan Range Extension and Signal to Noise Optimization of a Lens-Shifted Structured Light System
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Kutlu, Hasan; Ritz, Martin; Santos, Pedro; Fellner, Dieter W.; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
Digitization of cultural heritage is of growing importance, both for its preservation for coming generations in the face of looming dangers of natural decay or intentional destruction, and current generations, that increasingly have access to virtual cultural heritage for interactive exploring or scientific analysis. These goals can only be achieved by 3D replicas at reasonable quality and resolution, to come as close as possible to the original. This brings about several challenges to overcome. The challenge of digitizing huge numbers of artefacts is addressed by CultLab3D, the first fully automatic 3D digitization system. Another challenge is the size of objects, as each digitization system is designed for a certain optimum measurement range, leaving which results in loss of quality. Due to optical and mechanical constraints, most systems are not able to faithfully reconstruct objects under a certain size limit in their full geometric detail. Historic coins are one good example, where the deterioration of the surface structure in most cases has progressed to a degree that it not even is perceptible through the fingernail. This challenge is addressed by a modular extension of CultLab3D, the MesoScanner, which is a structured light system that breaks limits in depth resolution through a mechanical lens-shifting extension, allowing physically shifting of fringe patterns on top of the well-known multi-period phase shift method. This is where this work adds two major improvements: First, the signal to noise ratio and thus reconstruction quality has been improved significantly through several algorithmic processing steps. Second, the physical limitation of the measurement range was removed using a 2D actuator steering the object mount, thus allowing for a measurement range at theoretically arbitrary size. This opens up the fully automatic handling of two scenarios: Complete digitization of objects exceeding the measurement range, and unsupervised digitization of large collections of small objects in one run.
Immersive Geometry-based and Image-based Exploration of Cultural Heritage Models
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Farràs, Arnau; Comino Trinidad, Marc; Andujar, Carlos; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
Recent advances in 3D acquisition technologies have facilitated the inexpensive digitization of cultural heritage. In addition to the 3D digital model, in many cases multiple photo collections are also available. These photo collections often provide valuable information not included in the 3D digital model. In this paper we describe a VR-ready web application to simultaneously explore a cultural heritage model together with arbitrary photo collections. At any time, users can define a region of interest either explicitly or implicitly, and the application retrieves, scores, groups and shows a matching subset of the photos. Users can then select a photo to project it onto the 3D model, to inspect the photo separately, or to teleport to the position the photo was taken from. Unlike previous approaches for joint 2D-3D model exploration, our interface has been specifically adapted to VR. We conducted a user study and found that the application greatly facilitates navigation and provides a fast, intuitive access to the available photos. The application supports any modern browser running on desktop, mobile and VR headset systems.
Interactive 3D Artefact Puzzles to Support Engagement Beyond the Museum Environment
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Rodriguez Echavarria, Karina; Samaroudi, Myrsini; LLoyd, Jack; Weyrich, Tim; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
The need for online 3D interactive experiences was evidenced during the COVID-19 lockdowns, as audiences across the world have been unable to visit museums, physically interact with their collections on site or digitally interact with technologies and digital media situated within such settings. As a response, this research addresses gaps identified in a review of the digital offerings from UK and US museums during the 2020 lockdowns, highlighting the limited number and nature of 3D interactive offerings provided, despite the wide efforts on 3D digitisation over the last decade. Thus, the research investigates the development and testing of an online 3D interactive activity, resembling a physical activity situated in the archaeological gallery of Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (UK). Through a pilot user survey, the research aims to understand what is the impact of such online offerings to better contextualise heritage collections; enhance cultural heritage learning and appreciation; and complement physical activities of similar nature. The analysis of audiences’' opinions about these interactions can be of great importance, as such activities have the power to enable active access to cultural heritage resources regardless of the physical location of users and transform heritage experiences in the long term. Our research indicates that, while the physical experience might offer advantages as far as it concerns the familiarity with the tactile nature of interaction, the digital counterpart has potential to allow for the experience of assembling the puzzle to achieve a wider reach.
Reimagining a 2D Painted Portrait as a Kinetic 3D Sculpture
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Ellis, Ellen Conlan; Adzhiev, Valery; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
This paper describes a Cultural Heritage related project concerned with developing computer technology for reimagining a 2D painted still portrait made in a distinctive fine art style as an animated 3D sculpture whilst preserving the principal features of the initial painting yet resulting in an artefact of original quality. This work explores both artistic and technological aspects of a production pipeline. The case-study to prove the concept relies on Francis Bacon's ''Study for Portrait (Michel Leiris)''. A supplementary video shows the resulting animated piece with Bacon's voice-over.
Triggering the Past: Cultural Heritage Interpretation Using Augmented and Virtual Reality at a Living History Museum
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Shitut, Kunal; Geigel, Joe; Decker, Juilee; Jacobs, Gary; Doherty, Amanda; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
In this paper, we present a use case for the introduction of historical digital characters in the context of a living history museum. We describe a prototype system and framework that enables the use of augmented and virtual reality for placing a these characters in the museum space. The system uses a conversational interface for natural interaction, supports the scanning of objects in the museum space for guiding the conversation, and provides a common user experience on a variety of mixed reality devices including the Microsoft Hololens, mobile devices, and WebXR enabled Web browsers. We describe our character creation workflow, provide technical details on the implementation and discuss the user testing of the system. Findings from our testing suggest, that despite the analog, hands-on tradition of living history museums, the use of immersive technologies has the potential to greatly enhance the visitor experience while engaging users within the physical space of the museum.
Virtual Dance Museum: the Case of Greek/Cypriot Folk Dancing
(The Eurographics Association, 2021) Aristidou, Andreas; Andreou, Nefeli; Charalambous, Loukas; Yiannakidis, Anastasios; Chrysanthou, Yiorgos; Hulusic, Vedad and Chalmers, Alan
In this paper, we have designed and developed a virtual dance museum to provide the technological tools that allow for widely educating the public, most specifically the youngest generations, about the story, costumes, music, and history of our dances. The holistic documentation of our intangible cultural heritage creations is a critical necessity for the preservation and the continuity of our identity as Europeans. In that direction, we have employed a specially designed relational database schema that holistically structures the information within the database, and is ideal for archiving, presenting, further analyzing, and re-using dance motion data. Data have been retargeted to a virtual character, dressed with traditional uniform and simulated to achieve realism. The users can view and interact with the archived data using advanced 3D character visualization in three ways: via an online 3D virtual environment; in virtual reality using headset; and in augmented reality, where the 3D characters can co-inhabit the real world. Our museum is publicly accessible, and also enables motion data reusability, facilitating dance learning applications through gamification.

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