5,501 research outputs found

    Libraries and Museums in the Flat World: Are They Becoming Virtual Destinations?

    Get PDF
    In his recent book, “TheWorld is Flat”, Thomas L. Friedman reviews the impact of networks on globalization. The emergence of the Internet, web browsers, computer applications talking to each other through the Internet, and the open source software, among others, made the world flatter and created an opportunity for individuals to collaborate and compete globally. Friedman predicts that “connecting all the knowledge centers on the planet together into a single global network…could usher in an amazing era of prosperity and innovation”. Networking also is changing the ways by which libraries and museums provide access to information sources and services. In the flat world, libraries and museums are no longer a physical “place” only: they are becoming “virtual destinations”. This paper discusses the implications of this transformation for the digitization and preservation of, and access to, cultural heritage resources

    A WebXR-based plattform for mixed geometry-based and image-based exploration of cultural heritage models

    Get PDF
    The great advances in 3D digitization and upward trend in remote services have led to a growthin demand for virtual museums and applications to explore cultural heritage. While it is true thatvirtual museums are not a novelty, many of these applications are still not very accessible or present several limitations. In this master's thesis, we have developed a web application to explore culturalheritage models without restrictions. The application offers the user a collection of high-quality photographs from the environment surrounding the user, which can be projected onto the model.Our application is also compatible with virtual reality headsets providing the same features in amuch more immersive environment. After developing our application, we have carried out a pilotuser study to assess its effectiveness objectively and know the issues that should be addressed inthe final product

    The bust o Francesco II Gonzaga: from digital documentation to 3d printing

    Get PDF
    Geomatics technics and methods are now able to provide a great contribution to the Cultural Heritage (CH) processes, being adaptable to different purposes: management, diagnosis, restoration, protection, study and research, communication, formation and fruition of the Cultural Heritage. This experimentation was done with an eye to encouraging and promoting the development of principles and good practices for recording, documentation and information management of cultural heritage This research focuses on the documentation path of a cultural asset, in particular a Renaissance statue, aimed to achieve a three dimensional model useful for many digital applications and for solid reproduction. The digital copy can be used in many contexts and represents an efficient tool to preserve and promote CH. It can be included in virtual museum archives and catalogues, shared on network with cultural operators and users, and it permits the contextualization of the asset in its artistic and historical background. Moreover, the possibility to obtain a hard copy, reproduced through 3D printing, allows to reach new opportunities of interaction with CH. In this article, two techniques for the digitization of the terracotta bust of Francesco II Gonzaga, in the City Museum of Mantua, are described: the triangulation scanner and dense image matching photogrammetry. As well as the description of the acquisition and the elaborations, other aspects are taken into account: the characteristics of the object, the place for the acquisition, the ultimate goal and the economic availability. There are also highlighted the optimization pipeline to get the correct three-dimensional models and a 3D printed copy. A separate section discusses the comparison of the realized model to identify the positive and negative aspects of each adopted application

    HELIN Consortium LORI Grant Final Report HELIN

    Get PDF
    Final report to the RI Office of Library and Information Services on the work accomplished with the LORI grant received from that agency

    Citizen science for cuneiform studies

    No full text
    This paper examines the potential applications of Citizen Science and Open Linked Data within a critical Web Science framework. Described here is a work-inprocess concerning an interdisciplinary, multiinstitutional project for the digitization, annotation and online dissemination of a large corpus of written material from ancient Mesopotamia. The paper includes an outline of the problems presented by a large, heterogeneous and incomplete dataset, as well as a discussion of the potential of Citizen Science as a potential solution, combining both technical and social aspects. Drawing inspiration from other successful Citizen Science projects, the current paper suggests a process for capturing and enriching the data in ways which can address not only the challenges of the current data set, but also similar issues arising elsewhere on the wider Web

    A framework for working with digitized cultural heritage artefacts

    Get PDF
    In this paper, we present our work in designing, implementing, and evaluating a set of 3D interactive spatial measurement tools in the context of Cultural Heritage Toolbox (CH Toolbox), a framework for computer-aided cultural heritage research. Our application utilizes a bi-manual, spaceball and mouse driven user interface to help the user manage visualized 3D models digitized from real artifacts. We have developed a virtual radius estimator, useful for analyzing incomplete pieces of radial artifacts, and a virtual tape measure, useful in measurement of geodesic distances between two points on the surface of an artifact. We tested the tools on the special case of pottery analysis

    Digitization of World Heritage Sites of Iran as a Tool for Facilitating Online Access During Worldwide Pandemic: Case Study of Pasargadae World Heritage Site

    Get PDF
    Purpose Cultural heritage digitization facilitates the preservation of culturally valuable objects, entities, or items into a digital form allowing more comprehensive and concurrent access to such objects. It becomes more significant for overcoming the constraints associated with physical access, especially during turmoil, disasters, and pandemics like COVID-19, where physical interactions are almost restricted. Covid-19 restrictions and resultant social distancing protocols impacted nearly every facet of human life. Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and heritage sites across the globe were also affected as they were closed for the general public. Therefore, the study explores the importance of making diverse cultural heritage information available online and accessible to the broader user community and provisions for data security through proper backups, setting user privileges, and maintaining necessary updates. Design/Methodology/Approach The study selected Pasargadae world heritage site in Iran as the study area by analyzing the database maintained and available for consultation. Further, the study attempts to highlight the advantages associated with the digitization of cultural items, including manuscripts, images, monuments, sites, etc. It also highlights prerequisites for managing such information online effectively using digitization. Findings Given the state of cultural heritage in Iran, digitization is still in the infancy stage. It is necessary to develop well-equipped policies, technological infrastructures, including high-speed internet, scanning machines, high-resolution digital cameras, and servers with high capacity processing for digitization. Besides, adequate funding and significant management concerns are needed to address various ethical and privacy issues, including copyright concerns associated with Iran’s cultural heritage digitization process. Originality/value The work is a thorough attempt towards surveying Pasargadae world heritage site to understand the basic requirements for creating an online information delivery portal through the digitization of rich cultural heritage sites for enabling access even in virtual mode

    From pixel to mesh: accurate and straightforward 3D documentation of cultural heritage from the Cres/Lošinj archipelago

    Get PDF
    Most people like 3D visualizations. Whether it is in movies, holograms or games, 3D (literally) adds an extra dimension to conventional pictures. However, 3D data and their visualizations can also have scientic archaeological benets: they are crucial in removing relief distortions from photographs, facilitate the interpretation of an object or just support the aspiration to document archaeology as exhaustively as possible. Since archaeology is essentially a spatial discipline, the recording of the spatial data component is in most cases of the utmost importance to perform scientic archaeological research. For complex sites and precious artefacts, this can be a di€cult, time-consuming and very expensive operation. In this contribution, it is shown how a straightforward and cost-eective hard- and software combination is used to accurately document and inventory some of the cultural heritage of the Cres/Lošinj archipelago in three or four dimensions. First, standard photographs are acquired from the site or object under study. Secondly, the resulting image collection is processed with some recent advances in computer technology and so-called Structure from Motion (SfM) algorithms, which are known for their ability to reconstruct a sparse point cloud of scenes that were imaged by a series of overlapping photographs. When complemented by multi-view stereo matching algorithms, detailed 3D models can be built from such photo collections in a fully automated way. Moreover, the software packages implementing these tools are available for free or at very low-cost. Using a mixture of archaeological case studies, it will be shown that those computer vision applications produce excellent results from archaeological imagery with little eort needed. Besides serving the purpose of a pleasing 3D visualization for virtual display or publications, the 3D output additionally allows to extract accurate metric information about the archaeology under study (from single artefacts to entire landscapes)
    corecore