CulturalWiki: A Semantic Map-Based Wiki for Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The use of digital maps capitalizes on the long tradition of using paper maps as mean of communication and learning among people. More than ever, maps are becoming one of the most used metaphors to present concepts and knowledge. This paper presents a wiki infrastructure for map-based information systems’ design that, through an ontology, defines a semantic model able to minimize the problems in communication across interdisciplinary communities by putting together cultural information from different data sources. Using map-oriented solution, the wiki is aimed at enabling intercultural collaboration and learning among all the stakeholders involved in cultural heritage projects. A living lab based on the use of the CulturalWiki framework is described and the results of evaluations are presented

A Storytelling-Driven Framework for Cultural Heritage Dissemination

This paper aims at introducing a new dissemination framework for cultural heritage (CH) making possible affordable solutions for small and medium museums to cooperate/collaborate in the creation of exhibitions. The framework also makes possible new data-based communication strategies able to combine content belonging to different cultural archives and accessed through an ontology-based integration and discovery mechanism, and fosters new data sharing and distribution policies that preserve intellectual property rights. The proposed dissemination model redefines the concept of digital storytelling with the aim of increasing the participation of domain experts in the dissemination of CH. The framework is designed around a graph-based architecture for creating attractive and engaging multimedia narratives that will be transformed in real experiences personalized according to the user\u2019s profile, interests and context of use. Recommender and digital right management services are provided to authors and users for helping them in the creation, personalization and navigation of stories and for guaranteeing the adoption of suitable sharing and distribution policies

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

DECHO—a framework for the digital exploration of cultural heritage objects

We present a framework for the digital exploration of cultural heritage objects. Today computing and information technology is pervasive and ubiquitous and has boosted at unprecedented levels, information diffusion and productivity. Such technology is today a ripe context for succinctly gathering knowledge by combining in innovative ways powerful visualization tactics, rapid access to a significant amount of relevant information, domain-specific knowledge, and rich and pervasive tools to sort, group, and slice the information and knowledge in different ways. To this end, we present a complete framework that is easy to use, does not require expensive custom equipment, and has been designed for helping archaeology researchers and educators reconstruct and analyze the historical context of cultural heritage objects. Our main inspiration is that archaeology today would benefit significantly from having spur-of-the-moment access to information from a variety of heterogeneous data sources and being able to have multiple participants visually observe factual and visual data in an intuitive and natural setting. While we present a framework geared towards archaeology, in the long term we envision reusing it in a variety of fields. Our framework includes data acquisition, data management, and data visualization components. The data acquisition component enables the fast, easy, and accurate addition of 3D object models and factual data, including narrations. The data management component includes a novel semantic database system that provides an intuitive view of the available contents in terms of an ontology, supports the addition of narrations, integrates data stored by other databases, and supports object retrieval, browsing, and knowledge navigation. The data visualization component provides visual feedback, which is a crucial part of an exploratory endeavor. It provides the ability to alter the appearance of archaeological objects, complete fragments of 3D object models, and several compelling forms of digital inspection and information visualization. All algorithms exploit knowledge from the database and from the obtained 3D models. Visuals can be applied on top of the physical object or on a 3D model shown in a traditional display, controllable via a Web page interface