Augmenting Heritage: An Open-Source Multiplatform AR Application

AI NeRF algorithms, capable of cloud processing, have significantly reduced hardware requirements and processing efficiency in photogrammetry pipelines. This accessibility has unlocked the potential for museums, charities, and cultural heritage sites worldwide to leverage mobile devices for artifact scanning and processing. However, the adoption of augmented reality platforms often necessitates the installation of proprietary applications on users' mobile devices, which adds complexity to development and limits global availability. This paper presents a case study that demonstrates a cost-effective pipeline for visualizing scanned museum artifacts using mobile augmented reality, leveraging an open-source embedded solution on a website

Making an Animation as a Means of Dissemination and as a Tool for Research into Historical Sites: The Case Study of San Julián de Samos

© 2021 The Author(s), This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This version of the article has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing. The final published paper is available online at: https://doi.org/10.3366/ijhac.2021.0266Versión final aceptada de: López-Salas, E. (2021). Making an Animation as a Means of Dissemination and as a Tool for Research into Historical Sites: The Case Study of San Julián de Samos. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 15(1-2), 133-151. https://doi.org/10.3366/ijhac.2021.0266[Abstract] In this article we will examine how and why the animation ‘Creating the monastic site: from its origins to the nineteenth century’ allowed us to expand the digital art and architectural project ‘Digital Samos. A digital approach to the Monastery of San Julián de Samos’. On the one hand, by making the animation, we were able to create an easy-to-read and more effective visual product to disseminate our research results about the evolving nature of the monastic site of San Julián de Samos in north-western Spain, far beyond static computer-aided design reconstructions. On the other hand, we will see that the animation became a research tool that forced us as scholars to tackle the visualization of relational past realms in their entirety and on a short-term time basis, without compromising the rigour with which computer-based visualization methods and outputs should be used in the communication of and research into cultural heritage

Developing an interoperable cloud-based visualization workflow for 3D archaeological heritage data. The Palenque 3D Archaeological Atlas

In archaeology, 3D data has become ubiquitous, as researchers routinely capture high resolution photogrammetry and LiDAR models and engage in laborious 3D analysis and reconstruction projects at every scale: artifacts, buildings, and entire sites. The raw data and processed 3D models are rarely shared as their computational dependencies leave them unusable by other scholars. In this paper we outline a novel approach for cloud-based collaboration, visualization, analysis, contextualization, and archiving of multi-modal giga-resolution archaeological heritage 3D data. The Palenque 3D Archaeological Atlas builds on an open source WebGL systems that efficiently interlink, merge, present, and contextualize the Big Data collected at the ancient Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, allowing researchers and stakeholders to visualize, access, share, measure, compare, annotate, and repurpose massive complex archaeological datasets from their web-browsers

Building Cultural Heritage Resilience through Remote Sensing: An Integrated Approach Using Multi-Temporal Site Monitoring, Datafication, and Web-GL Visualization

In the American West, wildfires and earthquakes are increasingly threatening the archaeological, historical, and tribal resources that define the collective identity and connection with the past for millions of Americans. The loss of said resources diminishes societal understanding of the role cultural heritage plays in shaping our present and future. This paper examines the viability of employing stationary and SLAM-based terrestrial laser scanning, close-range photogrammetry, automated surface change detection, GIS, and WebGL visualization techniques to enhance the preservation of cultural resources in California. Our datafication approach combines multi-temporal remote sensing monitoring of historic features with legacy data and collaborative visualization to document and evaluate how environmental threats affect built heritage. We tested our methodology in response to recent environmental threats from wildfire and earthquakes at Bodie, an iconic Gold Rush-era boom town located on the California and Nevada border. Our multi-scale results show that the proposed approach effectively integrates highly accurate 3D snapshots of Bodie’s historic buildings before/after disturbance, or post-restoration, with surface change detection and online collaborative visualization of 3D geospatial data to monitor and preserve important cultural resources at the site. This study concludes that the proposed workflow enhances the monitoring of at-risk California’s cultural heritage and makes a call to action to employ remote sensing as a pathway to advanced planning. View Full-Tex

Integrated and interactive 4D system for archaeological stratigraphy

The digitization of some of the processes carried out in an archaeological excavation is changing the way of working at the site. Today, new technologies coexist with traditional methodologies. The study of stratigraphy can combine drawings of profiles and plans, the Harris Matrix diagram, as well as digitized files that perform a complete record of the stratigraphic sequence. However, this information is usually unaggregated from the rest of the information system that makes up the archaeological record. In this paper, we present an integrated software tool and the associated methodology to record, store, visualize and analyze the 3D stratigraphy of a site. The implementation uses spatial databases to store information of a heterogeneous nature and game engines for the visualization and interaction with this information. During the excavation process, the strata are scanned using the Tof technology, which is available in many smartphones. The resulting 3D model of the stratum, once uploaded to the software system, allows us to visualize the sequence of strata incorporating the findings into their original arrangement. Some additional tools, such as the scrollbar, help to perform a temporal analysis of the site. The result is a 4D interactive stratigraphy tool, which together with the Harris Matrix, complements the archaeological record and facilitates the work to archaeologists. This methodology also allows to speed up the on-site work and the subsequent analysis, while improving the user experience with the 3D archaeological site replica.CRUE-CSICSpringer NatureSpanish GovernmentEuropean Commission TIN2017-84968-

AUGMENTED TURIN BAROQUE ATRIA: AR EXPERIENCES FOR ENHANCING CULTURAL HERITAGE

Abstract. This paper presents the most recent developments in a project aimed to the documentation, storage and dissemination of the cultural heritage. The subject of the project are more than 70 Baroque atria in Turin, recognized by critics for their particular unitary vaulted systems Our research team is currently working on digitizing documents and studying ways to enhance and share these results through ICT. In particular, we want to explore possibilities for recognizing and tracing three-dimensional objects in augmented reality (AR) applications connected to the collected data. Recent developments in this field relate to the technology available on widespread mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, allowing for real-time 3D scanning. Using software prototypes, we want to introduce some problems involved in integrating this technology into digital archives.</p

Model Behavior: Using Photogrammetry for Collections Storage Planning

Proper and efficient collections storage is often a challenge for museums. As collections outgrow their facilities, institutions struggle to find additional space, often resorting to hasty moves of their objects into ill-fitting placements. A large-scale collections move is a slowgoing process, requiring manual measurement and countless trial-and-error sessions. An unnoticed support beam, a low entryway, or uneven flooring can derail even the most well-planned collections move, costing an organization unexpected additions in time and labor expenses. Advancements in emerging technologies, however, may soon eliminate this problem. This capstone explores the use of photogrammetry and 3D modeling to plan a collections storage move in a virtual environment. It examines the relationship between museums and technology through an analysis of museum studies literature, and showcases examples from the archaeology, architecture, and design fields to demonstrate the potential of photogrammetry. A collections move project using this technology for the digital modeling of storage spaces is proposed and detailed. Through the proposed project, I argue that the use of these technologies to design collections storage will greatly optimize a collections move

Comparing 2D pictures with 3D replicas for the digital preservation and analysis of tangible heritage

In this paper, we present two experiments designed to compare 2D digital pictures and 3D digital replicas of artefacts, to understand how differently these media facilitate the perception and understanding of our past. Archaeologists and museum experts have commonly used 2D digital pictures to preserve and study artefacts. Recently these scholars have also started to use 3D digital archives for their studies. Yet we still need to determine how these two formats (2D vs 3D) affect the perception of our past. Results to our experiments point to 3D digital replicas of artifacts as more effective means to digitally preserve tangible cultural heritage, since 3D multi-visualization augments the perception of physical characteristics of the artifacts allowing a more embodied experience with these objects. Our experiments also suggest that multi-visualization (i.e., point-cloud, mesh, and color information) helps the viewers to overcome their personal conceptualization of specific objects.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2015.104251