2,824 research outputs found
Semantic Technologies for Manuscript Descriptions — Concepts and Visions
The contribution at hand relates recent developments in the area of the World Wide
Web to codicological research. In the last number of years, an informational extension
of the internet has been discussed and extensively researched: the Semantic Web. It
has already been applied in many areas, including digital information processing of
cultural heritage data. The Semantic Web facilitates the organisation and linking of
data across websites, according to a given semantic structure. Software can then process
this structural and semantic information to extract further knowledge. In the area
of codicological research, many institutions are making efforts to improve the online
availability of handwritten codices. If these resources could also employ Semantic
Web techniques, considerable research potential could be unleashed. However, data
acquisition from less structured data sources will be problematic. In particular, data
stemming from unstructured sources needs to be made accessible to SemanticWeb tools
through information extraction techniques. In the area of museum research, the CIDOC
Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) has been widely examined and is being adopted
successfully. The CRM translates well to Semantic Web research, and its concentration
on contextualization of objects could support approaches in codicological research.
Further concepts for the creation and management of bibliographic coherences and
structured vocabularies related to the CRM will be considered in this chapter. Finally, a
user scenario showing all processing steps in their context will be elaborated on
Digital reintegration of distributed mural paintings at different architectural phases: the case of St. Quirze de Pedret
Sant Quirze de Pedret is a Romanesque church located in Cercs (Catalonia, Spain) at the foothills of the Pyrenees. Its walls harbored one of the most important examples of mural paintings in Catalan Romanesque Art. However, in two different campaigns (in 1921 and 1937) the paintings were removed using the strappo technique and transferred to museums for safekeeping. This detachment protected the paintings from being sold in the art market, but at the price of breaking the integrity of the monument. Nowadays, the paintings are exhibited in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya - MNAC (Barcelona, Catalonia) and the Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona - MDCS (Solsona, Catalonia). Some fragments of the paintings are still on the walls of the church. In this work, we present the methodology to digitally reconstruct the church building at its different phases and group the dispersed paintings in a single virtual church, commissioned by the MDCS. We have combined 3D reconstruction (LIDAR and photogrammetric using portable artificial illumination) and modeling techniques (including texture transfer between different shapes) to recover the integrity of the monument in a single 3D virtual model. Furthermore, we have reconstructed the church building at different significant historical moments and placed actual paintings on its virtual walls, based on archaeological knowledge. This set of 3D models allows experts and visitors to better understand the monument as a whole, the relations between the different paintings, and its evolution over time.The project has been promoted by the Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona (special thanks are due to Carles Freixes and Lídia Fàbregas), co-financed by "La Caixa" Foundation and the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Likewise, the work presented here counted with the support of MEIC (Spanish Government) project 3D4LIFE (TIN-2017-88515-C2), PRECA II of the Universitat de Barcelona (HAR2017-84451-P) and EHEM (JPICH0127 Conservation, Protection and Use, PCI2020-111979). The high-resolution photographs of the paintings are by Gaetano Alfano (Università degli Studi della Tuscia).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Restitution of Sculptural Groups Using 3D Scanners
Imagine for a moment that you have to solve a 3D jigsaw of which you have lost several pieces. You have also lost the original box-top showing the final picture, and as if that were not enough, some of the pieces you do have may belong to some other jigsaw. This is in essence the sort of challenge that we faced in the novel project that we shall be describing in this paper. The final aim of the project was, with the help of 3D scanners, to digitalize and reconstruct multi-piece classical sculptures. Particularly, we tackle the restitution of the so-called “Aeneas Group”, a famous iconographic reference during the Roman Empire. We have undertaken this ambitious project in collaboration with the research department of the Spanish National Museum of Roman Art (MNAR). This paper summarizes the real problems that arose and had to be solved, the innovations, and the main results of the work that we have carried out over these recent years
A Survey of Geometric Analysis in Cultural Heritage
We present a review of recent techniques for performing geometric analysis in cultural heritage (CH) applications. The survey is aimed at researchers in the areas of computer graphics, computer vision and CH computing, as well as to scholars and practitioners in the CH field. The problems considered include shape perception enhancement, restoration and preservation support, monitoring over time, object interpretation and collection analysis. All of these problems typically rely on an understanding of the structure of the shapes in question at both a local and global level. In this survey, we discuss the different problem forms and review the main solution methods, aided by classification criteria based on the geometric scale at which the analysis is performed and the cardinality of the relationships among object parts exploited during the analysis. We finalize the report by discussing open problems and future perspectives
3D photogrammetric data modeling and optimization for multipurpose analysis and representation of Cultural Heritage assets
This research deals with the issues concerning the processing, managing, representation
for further dissemination of the big amount of 3D data today achievable and storable with
the modern geomatic techniques of 3D metric survey. In particular, this thesis is focused
on the optimization process applied to 3D photogrammetric data of Cultural Heritage
assets.
Modern Geomatic techniques enable the acquisition and storage of a big amount of data,
with high metric and radiometric accuracy and precision, also in the very close range
field, and to process very detailed 3D textured models. Nowadays, the photogrammetric
pipeline has well-established potentialities and it is considered one of the principal
technique to produce, at low cost, detailed 3D textured models.
The potentialities offered by high resolution and textured 3D models is today well-known
and such representations are a powerful tool for many multidisciplinary purposes, at
different scales and resolutions, from documentation, conservation and restoration to
visualization and education. For example, their sub-millimetric precision makes them
suitable for scientific studies applied to the geometry and materials (i.e. for structural and
static tests, for planning restoration activities or for historical sources); their high fidelity
to the real object and their navigability makes them optimal for web-based visualization
and dissemination applications. Thanks to the improvement made in new visualization
standard, they can be easily used as visualization interface linking different kinds of
information in a highly intuitive way. Furthermore, many museums look today for more
interactive exhibitions that may increase the visitors’ emotions and many recent
applications make use of 3D contents (i.e. in virtual or augmented reality applications and
through virtual museums).
What all of these applications have to deal with concerns the issue deriving from the
difficult of managing the big amount of data that have to be represented and navigated.
Indeed, reality based models have very heavy file sizes (also tens of GB) that makes them
difficult to be handled by common and portable devices, published on the internet or
managed in real time applications. Even though recent advances produce more and more
sophisticated and capable hardware and internet standards, empowering the ability to
easily handle, visualize and share such contents, other researches aim at define a common
pipeline for the generation and optimization of 3D models with a reduced number of
polygons, however able to satisfy detailed radiometric and geometric requests.
iii
This thesis is inserted in this scenario and focuses on the 3D modeling process of
photogrammetric data aimed at their easy sharing and visualization. In particular, this
research tested a 3D models optimization, a process which aims at the generation of Low
Polygons models, with very low byte file size, processed starting from the data of High
Poly ones, that nevertheless offer a level of detail comparable to the original models. To
do this, several tools borrowed from the game industry and game engine have been used.
For this test, three case studies have been chosen, a modern sculpture of a contemporary
Italian artist, a roman marble statue, preserved in the Civic Archaeological Museum of
Torino, and the frieze of the Augustus arch preserved in the city of Susa (Piedmont-
Italy). All the test cases have been surveyed by means of a close range photogrammetric
acquisition and three high detailed 3D models have been generated by means of a
Structure from Motion and image matching pipeline. On the final High Poly models
generated, different optimization and decimation tools have been tested with the final aim
to evaluate the quality of the information that can be extracted by the final optimized
models, in comparison to those of the original High Polygon one. This study showed how
tools borrowed from the Computer Graphic offer great potentialities also in the Cultural
Heritage field. This application, in fact, may meet the needs of multipurpose and
multiscale studies, using different levels of optimization, and this procedure could be
applied to different kind of objects, with a variety of different sizes and shapes, also on
multiscale and multisensor data, such as buildings, architectural complexes, data from
UAV surveys and so on
Large-scale point-cloud visualization through localized textured surface reconstruction
In this paper, we introduce a novel scene representation for the visualization of large-scale point clouds accompanied by a set of high-resolution photographs. Many real-world applications deal with very densely sampled point-cloud data, which are augmented with photographs that often reveal lighting variations and inaccuracies in registration. Consequently, the high-quality representation of the captured data, i.e., both point clouds and photographs together, is a challenging and time-consuming task. We propose a two-phase approach, in which the first (preprocessing) phase generates multiple overlapping surface patches and handles the problem of seamless texture generation locally for each patch. The second phase stitches these patches at render-time to produce a high-quality visualization of the data. As a result of the proposed localization of the global texturing problem, our algorithm is more than an order of magnitude faster than equivalent mesh-based texturing techniques. Furthermore, since our preprocessing phase requires only a minor fraction of the whole data set at once, we provide maximum flexibility when dealing with growing data sets
Representing and Indexing Archaeological Information
The need to preserve and remember the past is a particular human trait. The richness
of our cultural history is approached by a vast array of disciplines, that investigate and
manage it. However, their effectiveness can be hindered by several technical issues. One
of the concerns of experts in this area is the way the importance of cultural heritage is
communicated in order to cultivate interest, curiosity and respect. Another concern is
the lack of suitable tools that can handle the dimension and complexity of the collections
with which they interact.
With the emergence of digital tools and the creation of online repositories for the collections
of cultural institutions, it is possible to suggest different solutions to tackle these
problems. The proposed solution aims to facilitate access and interaction with cultural
information, through the implementation of an application capable of integrating multiple
forms of representation of historical artifacts. The application tackles two problems
that arise from distinct goals. One is the need to represent, in a single view, collections of
related items from different repositories. The other is how to, effectively, communicate
the information associated with an artifact and its context.
This MSc dissertation is part of a collaborative effort between NOVA LINCS researchers
and several archaeological institutions of the Iberian Extremadura, aiming to develop
tools that will support research and help sharing the cultural wealth of archaeological
sites and artifacts from the region. In this dissertation, the developed application covers a
general view of the aforementioned problems, while being flexible to the customization of
the representation of cultural data. The solution was evaluated on usability and effectiveness
on reaching the proposed goals, during a process that involved target audience users
and experts in the area of culture and history, as well as human-computer interaction.
The results provided positive conclusions
Digital 3D Technologies for Humanities Research and Education: An Overview
Digital 3D modelling and visualization technologies have been widely applied to support research in the humanities since the 1980s. Since technological backgrounds, project opportunities, and methodological considerations for application are widely discussed in the literature, one of the next tasks is to validate these techniques within a wider scientific community and establish them in the culture of academic disciplines. This article resulted from a postdoctoral thesis and is intended to provide a comprehensive overview on the use of digital 3D technologies in the humanities with regards to (1) scenarios, user communities, and epistemic challenges; (2) technologies, UX design, and workflows; and (3) framework conditions as legislation, infrastructures, and teaching programs. Although the results are of relevance for 3D modelling in all humanities disciplines, the focus of our studies is on modelling of past architectural and cultural landscape objects via interpretative 3D reconstruction methods
- …