Parametric Surfaces for Augmented Architecture representation

Augmented Reality (AR) represents a growing communication channel, responding to the need to expand reality with additional information, offering easy and engaging access to digital data. AR for architectural representation allows a simple interaction with 3D models, facilitating spatial understanding of complex volumes and topological relationships between parts, overcoming some limitations related to Virtual Reality. In the last decade different developments in the pipeline process have seen a significant advancement in technological and algorithmic aspects, paying less attention to 3D modeling generation. For this, the article explores the construction of basic geometries for 3D model’s generation, highlighting the relationship between geometry and topology, basic for a consistent normal distribution. Moreover, a critical evaluation about corrective paths of existing 3D models is presented, analysing a complex architectural case study, the virtual model of Villa del Verginese, an emblematic example for topological emerged problems. The final aim of the paper is to refocus attention on 3D model construction, suggesting some "good practices" useful for preventing, minimizing or correcting topological problems, extending the accessibility of AR to people engaged in architectural representation

3D MODELING AND DATA ENRICHMENT IN DIGITAL RECONSTRUCTION OF ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

The paper presents some experiments carried out as part of the virtual reconstruction of buildings just documented by partial sketches, or partially built, or no more existing, with the aim (a) to emphasize the use of a semantic construction of the digital model, not only as a means to modeling a building but as a cognitive system, (b) to show conceptual similarity between the treaties and BIM, (c) to propose new and more robust solutions to the 3D modeling from 2D drawings for CH artifacts, able to allow the verification of the assumptions used during the reconstruction pipeline, (d) to make use of interactive technical reference, typically real-time photorealistic rendering, for the visualization of three-dimensional model and of variants snapshots, managed by an iconic for illustrating the method of comparison and guided reading of model's characters of the steps taken

Computational Models (of Narrative) for Literary Studies

In the last decades a growing body of literature in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cognitive Science (CS) has approached the problem of narrative understanding by means of computational systems. Narrative, in fact, is an ubiquitous element in our everyday activity and the ability to generate and understand stories, and their structures, is a crucial cue of our intelligence. However, despite the fact that - from an historical standpoint - narrative (and narrative structures) have been an important topic of investigation in both these areas, a more comprehensive approach coupling them with narratology, digital humanities and literary studies was still lacking. With the aim of covering this empty space, in the last years, a multidisciplinary effort has been made in order to create an international meeting open to computer scientist, psychologists, digital humanists, linguists, narratologists etc.. This event has been named CMN (for Computational Models of Narrative) and was launched in the 2009 by the MIT scholars Mark A. Finlayson and Patrick H. Winston1

Multisensor Data Fusion for Cultural Heritage Assets Monitoring and Preventive Conservation

This paper shows the first phase of an ongoing interdisciplinary research project aimed at codifying procedures for the control and non-destructive analysis of the conservation status of CH artefacts to guide preventive preservation actions. It specifically explains the results of an experiment aimed at defining the procedural phases of semantic-informative enrichment of a digital architectural model where the morpho-metric components acquired with instrumental survey techniques are linked with cognitive and technical aspects (microclimatic, material, and geometric deviation data), with the aim of making this model a support for the simulation of scenarios connected to preventive preservation programmes. The research was carried out on the church of San Michele Arcangelo in Padula, affected by plaster detachment from the frescoes on the intrados of the vaulted systems. The work was conceived to support a mainly qualitative assessment regarding a possible relationship between micro-environmental variations and visually perceived degradation phenomena to provide a first indication of the conservation status of the investigated surfaces. The analyses were conducted through algorithms that, as such, are repeatable and objective. In addition, these processes, as they were applied to the models derived from the architectural survey, made it possible to make the most of these outputs. Therefore, by combining the algorithmic manipulation of the digital representations with the necessary critical interpretation of the data by the specialist, it was possible to address some actions of direct intervention and guide the most appropriate choices for subsequent in-depth diagnostics, more targeted, reducing the damage to the historical heritage

SPARQL Playground: A block programming tool to experiment with SPARQL

SPARQL is a powerful query language for SemanticWeb data sources but one which is quite complex to master. As the block programming paradigm has been succesfully used to teach programming skills, we propose a tool that allows users to build and run SPARQL queries on an endpoint without previous knowledge of the syntax of SPARQL and the model of the data in the endpoint (vocabularies and semantics). This user interface attempts to close the gap between tools for the lay user that do not allow to express complex queries and overtly complex technical tools

Construction, Management and Visualization of 3D Models of Large Archeological and Architectural Sites for E-Heritage GIS Systems

In this paper we present an integrated system developed in order to record, construct, pre-process, manage, visualize and visually navigate 3D models reality based of large archeological and architectural sites for eHeritage GIS systems. The framework integrates structured geometrical and documentary information resulting from multiple sources with the aim to enhance the knowledge of those sites within the frame of its historical evolution and its institutional management in a 3D GIS/DB. The developed applications were designed for different types of users, with a largely scalable interface, able to support different output devices and to work at different levels of iconicity. The system allows a full comprehension of the buildings in their own context, permitting to discover unknown relationships, to evaluate their architectural occupancy and to quickly access a complex system of information. The framework has been tested in two different systems - designed and developed to satisfy both internal (cataloguing, documentation, preservation, management of archaeological heritage) and external (communication through the web portal) purposes: the first, in Pompeii, developed in order to have a web-based system that uses Open Source software and complies with national and international standards; the second one, a prototype designed to make available on the Google Earth platform the complete Palladian corpus documentation implemented by the CISAAP

Scalable Exploration of Complex Objects and Environments Beyond Plain Visual Replication​

Digital multimedia content and presentation means are rapidly increasing their sophistication and are now capable of describing detailed representations of the physical world. 3D exploration experiences allow people to appreciate, understand and interact with intrinsically virtual objects. Communicating information on objects requires the ability to explore them under different angles, as well as to mix highly photorealistic or illustrative presentations of the object themselves with additional data that provides additional insights on these objects, typically represented in the form of annotations. Effectively providing these capabilities requires the solution of important problems in visualization and user interaction. In this thesis, I studied these problems in the cultural heritage-computing-domain, focusing on the very common and important special case of mostly planar, but visually, geometrically, and semantically rich objects. These could be generally roughly flat objects with a standard frontal viewing direction (e.g., paintings, inscriptions, bas-reliefs), as well as visualizations of fully 3D objects from a particular point of views (e.g., canonical views of buildings or statues). Selecting a precise application domain and a specific presentation mode allowed me to concentrate on the well defined use-case of the exploration of annotated relightable stratigraphic models (in particular, for local and remote museum presentation). My main results and contributions to the state of the art have been a novel technique for interactively controlling visualization lenses while automatically maintaining good focus-and-context parameters, a novel approach for avoiding clutter in an annotated model and for guiding users towards interesting areas, and a method for structuring audio-visual object annotations into a graph and for using that graph to improve guidance and support storytelling and automated tours. We demonstrated the effectiveness and potential of our techniques by performing interactive exploration sessions on various screen sizes and types ranging from desktop devices to large-screen displays for a walk-up-and-use museum installation. KEYWORDS - Computer Graphics, Human-Computer Interaction, Interactive Lenses, Focus-and-Context, Annotated Models, Cultural Heritage Computing

Métodos de representação virtual e visualização para informação arquitetónica e contextual em sítios arqueológicos

This work seeks to outline some guidelines in order to improve the use of 3D visualization applied to archaeological data of diverse nature and at different scales. One difficulty found in this process is related to the still frequent two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional archaeological reality. Aware that the existence of data of two-dimensional nature is fundamental in the archaeological process and that they result, on the one hand, from the manual archaeological recording processes and, on the other hand, from the intense analysis and interpretation activity of the archaeological investigation team, we seek to ensure an adequate 3D representation based on 3D acquisition methods mostly available to the archaeology teams. Archaeological visualization in three-dimensional support is an increasingly frequent and necessary practice, but it continues to show some difficulties. These are substantiated in the reduced number of visualization techniques used, the use of visualization tools that are not very customized for the archaeological needs and the privileged use of visual features of the models during the archaeological process phases. Thus, the main objective of this work is to design and evaluate appropriate methods for visualizing archaeological data. To determine which visualization methods are most used during the phases of the archaeological process, an online user-survey was carried out, which allowed consolidating the 3D representation methodologies used, as well as to propose a visualization model that also categorizes the appropriate visualization techniques which increase the visual perception and understanding of the archaeological elements. Three prototypes are defined according to the different 3D data acquisition methodologies presented and visualization methodologies are designed in order to, on the one hand, take into account the scale and diversity of the archaeological elements and, on the other hand, to account for the need to ensure visualization methods which are easily assimilated by archaeologists. Each prototype was evaluated by two archaeologists with different professional background. They were proposed, through a set of previously determined tasks, to assess the interaction with 3D models and with the visualization methods and the satisfaction of the visualization results regarding the archaeological needs. The evaluation of the prototypes allowed to conclude that the presented visualization methods increase the perception of 3D models which represent archaeological elements. In addition, it was also possible to produce new objects that reveal elements of archaeological interest. It is suggested to make these methodologies available on a web-based application and on mobile platforms.Este trabalho procura esboçar algumas diretrizes no sentido de melhorar a utilização da visualização 3D aplicada aos dados arqueológicos de natureza diversa e a escalas distintas. Uma dificuldade encontrada neste processo prende-se com a, ainda frequente, representação bidimensional da realidade arqueológica tridimensional. Ciente de que a existência de dados de natureza bidimensional são fundamentais no processo arqueológico e que resultam, por um lado, dos processos manuais de registo arqueológicos e, por outro, da intensa atividade de análise e interpretação da equipa de investigação arqueológica, procuramos assegurar uma representação 3D adequada, com base em metodologias de aquisição de dados 3D geralmente disponíveis às equipas de arqueologia. A visualização arqueológica em suporte tridimensional é uma prática cada vez mais frequente e necessária, mas que continua a evidenciar algumas dificuldades. Estas substanciam-se no reduzido número de técnicas de visualização usadas, na utilização de ferramentas de visualização pouco adaptadas às necessidades arqueológicas e na utilização preferencial de características visuais dos modelos durante as fases do processo arqueológico. Assim, o objetivo primordial deste trabalho é desenhar e avaliar métodos adequados à visualização de dados arqueológicos. Para determinar que métodos de visualização são mais utilizados durante as fases do processo arqueológico realizou-se um questionário online que permitiu consolidar as metodologias de representação 3D usadas, bem como propor um modelo de visualização que também categoriza as técnicas de visualização adequadas para aumentar a perceção e a compreensão visual dos elementos arqueológicos. Definem-se três protótipos de acordo com as distintas metodologias de aquisição de dados 3D apresentados e são desenhadas metodologias de visualização que, por um lado, têm em conta a escala e a diversidade dos elementos arqueológicos e, por outro, a necessidade de assegurar métodos de visualização facilmente assimilados pelos arqueólogos. Cada protótipo foi avaliado por dois arqueólogos com experiências profissionais distintas. O que lhes foi proposto, através de um conjunto de tarefas previamente estabelecidas, foi aferir da facilidade de interação com os modelos 3D e com os métodos de visualização e adequação dos resultados de visualização às necessidades dos arqueólogos. A avaliação dos protótipos permitiu concluir que os métodos de visualização apresentados aumentam a perceção dos modelos 3D que representam elementos arqueológicos. Para além disso foi possível produzir também novos objetos que revelam elementos com interesse arqueológico. É sugerida a disponibilização destas metodologias em ambiente web e plataformas móveis.Programa Doutoral em Informátic

Management and communication of archaeological artefacts and architectural heritage using digital IS. What today? What next?

In this paper, we reviewed 20 years of development of 3D based IS to support archaeological and AH artefact knowledge, management and communication and their theoretical work basis. In detail, we illustrated our experiences showing the advantages and limits we had observed after extensive use. In conclusion, we have illustrated a new paradigm based on IoT-related technologies, potentially able to overcome existing problems, and the theoretical foundation of the new framework that has been designed, the concept of the Smart Cultural Object, sources and recipients of advanced information and related technological underpinning