2004: The 5th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Intelligent Cultural Heritage

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https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/461

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A case study of a virtual audience in a reconstruction of an ancient Roman odeon in Aphrodisias
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Ciechomski, Pablo de Heras; Ulicny, Branislav; Cetre, Rachel; Thalmann, Daniel; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
The benefits of including virtual humans into cultural heritage reconstructions are twofold: the realism of architectural models is increased by populating them; and, as well, it allows to preserve the intangible heritage describing how people in historical times behaved. We present a case study, where we create an interactive real-time scenario of a virtual audience in an ancient Roman odeon in Aphrodisias. Based on historical sources, we reconstruct both the building and the people. Inhabited virtual heritage applications require careful balancing of computational resources between the visualization of environment and the visualization of people. We describe several techniques that allow us to achieve high visual quality for a large number of virtual humans rendered together with a complex architectural model while still keeping interactive framerates. An important part of the heritage recontruction is the authoring, we propose a comprehensive framework for authoring of crowd scenarios.
The Ancient Olympic Games: Being Part of the Experience
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Gaitatzes, A.; Christopoulos, D.; Papaioannou, G.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
This paper presents the virtual reality applications that the Foundation of the Hellenic World has produced associated with the Olympic Games in ancient Greece. The separate virtual reality shows are presented in terms of interactivity and educational value. The technical aspects of the productions are next explained in detail, with an emphasis on character animation, dynamics and occlusion culling for surround screen projection environments. These techniques were mostly utilised in the recent production regarding the ancient pentathlon, where much effort has been made to recreate the feeling of the games and help the user/spectator be an interacting part of the edutainment activity.
The Shotton River and Mesolithic Dwellings: Recreating the Past from Geo-Seismic Data Sources
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Chang, Eugene; Stone, Robert J.; Arvanitis, Theodoros N.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
The Mesolithic Period in Europe has been a much-discussed area in archaeological research. As far as is known, the project reported herein represents the first attempt to visualise an otherwise inaccessible Mesolithic site with Virtual Reality (VR) technology, exploiting real geo-seismic data sources of the Southern North Sea. This paper presents the techniques and technology used in reconstructing an ancient river valley discovered while gathering seismic data for petroleum in the North Sea. The virtual landscape reconstruction is populated with vegetation types based on pollen records of the same period in nearby region, and 3D models of Mesolithic dwellings have been grouped into villages and positioned near possible settlement areas. The final VR environment has been brought to life via real-time interactive walkthroughs, complete with environmental and spatial sound effects. This paper also describes the various software applications and hardware used for implementing the high-quality static models and the high-performance interactive world, the latter intended for delivery via the WWW and multimedia for educational purposes.
A Point-Based Approach for Capture, Display and Illustration of Very Complex Archeological Artefacts
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Duguet, Florent; Drettakis, George; Girardeau-Montaut, Daniel; Martinez, Jean-Luc; Schmitt, Francis; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
In this paper we present a complete point-based pipeline for the capture, display and illustration of very large scans of archeological artifacts. This approach was developed as part of a project involving archeologists and computer graphics researchers, working on the Delphi 'Dancers Column'. We first determined the archeologists' requirements for interactive viewing and documentary illustration. To satisfy these needs we use a compact pointbased structure of the very large data, permitting interactive viewing in 3D. This helps the archeologists to examine and position the fragments. We introduce efficient construction algorithms for this structure, allowing it to be built on limited-memory platforms, such as those available on the field. We also propose a new stylized rendering approach based on an inverse cylindrical projection and 2D skydome rendering. This illustrative style has been used as a planning tool for fragment docking and as a substitute for traditional illustration in an archeological publication. Other uses of these tools are currently under way in the context of this project.
Image-Based Registration of 3D-Range Data Using Feature Surface Elements
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Bendels, Gerhard Heinrich; Degener, Patrick; Wahl, Roland; Körtgen, Marcel; Klein, Reinhard; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
Digitizing real-life objects via range scanners, stereo vision or tactile sensors usually requires the composition of multiple range images. In this paper we exploit intensity images often recorded with the range data and propose a fully automatic registration technique using 2D-image features with intrinsic scale information for finding corresponding points on the 3D-views. In our approach, the fine registration of two range images is performed by first aligning the feature points themselves, followed by a so-called constrained-domain alignment step. In the latter, rather than feature points, we consider feature surface elements that are derived using the scale information inherently established with the 2D-features. The global registration error is minimized using graph relaxation techniques to mediate the transformations required to align the multiple range images. We demonstrate the power and feasibility of our method by a case-study in the cultural heritage domain.
Generation of High-Resolution Mosaic for Photo-Realistic Texture-Mapping of Cultural Heritage 3D Models
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Remondino, Fabio; Niederoest, Jana; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
The work investigates the problem of how information contained in different overlapping images of a scene can be combined to produce larger images of higher quality. The resulted images can be used for different applications like forensic image analysis, computer animation, special effects, 3D model texture mapping or panorama mosaic. In our case, high-resolution image mosaics of mural frescos are required for the texturing of a 3D model that will be used in a movie production. We developed a novel method for the derivation of a high quality mosaic using multi-resolution and multi-temporal images acquired from arbitrary positions and cameras. This method named constrained mesh-wise affine transformation allows for seamless enhancement of the scene in the areas where higher resolution images are available. In this paper, we also discuss alternative procedures for the texture mapping of a 3D model using existing multi-resolution and multi-temporal imagery. The work has been done within a project aimed at a virtual and physical reconstruction of the destroyed Buddha statues of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
The potential of internet-based techniques for heritage interpretation
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Kreisel, W.; Gee, K.; Dickmann, F.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
This paper deals with the use of internet-based techniques in the context of applied heritage interpretation, using an old industrial area in central Germany as a case study example. The paper sets out basic principles of heritage interpretation, which are then contrasted to the special qualities of internet-based techniques. Potential advantages and disadvantages of using internet-based techniques in heritage interpretation are discussed. The paper then focuses on the development of heritage interpretation for the town and region of Schöningen, where the defining industry of open-cast brown coal mining is gradually being replaced. Tourism is likely to focus on the special cultural heritage of this region, which includes an important prehistoric site and 400.000 year old wooden spear found in the mining area. Different internet technologies are discussed in the context of realising ideas of heritage interpretation, followed by suggestions for practical implementation. Despite the undoubted uses of internet-based techniques and resulting benefits for heritage interpretation however, we conclude that internet-based approaches can at best supplement approaches taking place in the landscape itself.
Telling the Local Story: An Interactive Cultural Presentation System for Community and Regional Settings
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Pletinckx, Daniel; Jaegher, Lars De; Helsen, Truus; Langen, Iris; Silberman, Neil; Donckt, Marie-Claire Van der; Stobbe, Jan; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
This paper presents the results of the implementation of prototype culture heritage presentation systems in a village, a small town and a region. These systems focus on cost efficiency, sustainability, local identity and integration in tourism, and are based on an innovative approach of interactive storytelling. This approach facilitates effective public presentation of historical and archaeological data systems in local cultural heritage settings.
Interactive Cloth Editing and Simulation in Virtual Reality Applications for Theater Professionals
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Koutsonanos, D.; Moustakas, K.; Tzovaras, D.; Strintzis, M. G.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
This paper presents an efficient framework for the interactive simulation and editing of clothing over avatars. Specifically, a very efficient costume designer application is proposed based on new developments in cloth modeling simulation and animation. To animate cloth an hierarchical simulator is used, which speeds up the simulation without loosing in accuracy. Enhanced interaction potentiality is provided to the application user, using haptic devices with 6DOF for interaction. Furthermore, the user is capable of editing the cloth mesh, thus generating alternative versions of it, which could be more appropriate for a costume designer application. The mesh editing is performed so as to assure the stability of the simulation and the realism of the application. In order to validate the usability of our application, a number of case studies were conducted, which showed that the present system is efficient, user friendly and realistic. Keywords: Interactive cloth modeling, cloth editing, virtual reality applications, theater professionals, haptic
A Novel Approach to Context-Sensitive Guided e-Tours in Cultural Sites: Light Augmented Reality on PDAs
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Vlahakis, V.; Demiris, A.; Bounos, E.; Ioannidis, N.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
This paper focuses on the design parameters of mobile electronic guides for cultural sites and museums. We treat issues like user interaction and portability and present practical solutions for their installation and operation in uncontrolled indoor and outdoor environments. Initial experiences from the archaeological site of Pompeii, Italy, are reported. The major contribution of the paper is the proposal of a new concept, that of light Augmented Reality for portable guides which we believe will dominate the field of cultural guiding in the near future. Our implementation aims at setting the standards for such applications and initial qualitative results are presented from its test use.
As Time Flies By: Mixed Image and Model-Based Rendering of an Historical Landscape from Helicopter Images
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Vergauwen, M.; Pletinckx, D.; Willems, G.; Verbiest, F.; Gool, L. Van; Helsen, Truus; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
For the preservation of cultural heritage to be successful the general public must be able to experience sites and reconstructions in an intuitive, yet convincingly real way. In this paper, a pipeline is discussed that can be employed to generate an interactive presentation of landscape reconstruction through a Quicktime VR object movie. Images of the current landscape are registered with virtual reconstructions of the same landscape through time.
Digital representation and multimodal presentation of archeological graffiti at Pompei
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Balzani, M.; Callieri, M.; Fabbri, M.; Fasano, A.; Montani, C.; Pingi, P.; Santopuoli, N.; Scopigno, R.; Uccelli, F.; Varone, A.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
Graffiti is a special form of art which gives us important knowledge on culture and social life of a lost civilization. Unfortunately, they are usually engraved on soft and non durable materials. The project described here originated from the request for a new approach to the preservation, study and ubiquitous access to Pompei s graffiti. A multidisciplinary team was setup to design a new methodology to support the digital acquisition, the study and the presentation to the public of this peculiar type of Cultural Heritage. We have investigated the use of 3D scanning technologies and graphics modelling to produce accurate digital reconstructions and to enhance them for an improved readability. The specific issues have been considered and ad hoc solutions have been devised. In terms of presentation, we have provided both visual media (interactive visualization) and physical reproduction, obtained by adopting modern rapid reproduction techniques. The work described is a sort of preliminary feasibility study: we are now planning to apply this methodology on a much wider scale at Pompei.
Generative Parametric Design of Gothic Window Tracery
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Havemann, Sven; Fellner, Dieter W.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
Gothic architecture, and especially window tracery, exhibits quite complex geometric shape configurations. But this complexity is achieved by combining only a few basic geometric patterns. We present some principles of this long-standing domain, together with some delicate details, and show how the constructions of some prototypic Gothic windows can be formalized using our Generative Modeling Language (GML). The emphasis of our procedural approach is on modularization, so that complex configurations can be obtained from combining elementary constructions. Different combinations of specific parametric features can be grouped together, which leads to the concept of styles. They permit to differentiate between the basic shape and its appearance, i.e., in a particular ornamental decoration. This leads to an extremely compact representation for a whole class of shapes, which can nevertheless be quickly evaluated to obtain a connected manifold mesh of a particular window instance. The resulting mesh may also contain free-form surface parts, represented as subdivision surfaces.
Identifying technologies used in Cultural Heritage
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Owen, Ruth; Buhalis, Dimitrios; Pletinckx, Daniël; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
There are a growing number of Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications in cultural heritage. However despite funding constraints, projects often involve similar or even duplicate work carried out at the same site. This emphasizes the need for an enterprise whose purpose is to coordinate research projects in this field. The EPOCH programme has been established to address this requirement. This paper focuses on the development of a diagram depicting the technologies used in cultural heritage research from papers presented at VAST 2003. The aim of this paper is to draw together technologies currently being used by researchers in the cultural heritage sector in order to direct future research in this field.
Simulation of Ancient TechnologyWorks Using Haptic Interaction and Gesture Recognition
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Nikolakis, G.; Tzovaras, D.; Malassiotis, S.; Strintzis, M. G.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
The objective of the proposed application is the development of a new interactive application for the simulation of Ancient Greek Technology works, with the use of advanced virtual reality and computer vision technologies. In order to achieve these objectives haptic interaction mechanisms and a gesture recognition system were implemented in a virtual environment platform. A novel collision detection method was developed and virtual reality agents were used in order to achieve the desired results. The developed system was evaluated by real users and conclusions were drawn concerning the potentiality of the proposed application.
A Cultural Heritage Repository as Source for Learning Materials
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Patel, Manjula; Walczak, Krzysztof; Giorgini, Fabrizio; White, Martin; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
We discuss a system for the digital capture of museum artefacts which are accumulated into a multimedia repository comprising 3D models, images, video and sound clips as well as textual descriptions. A comprehensive set of metadata is recorded and stored alongside these various media with the aim of re-using and re-purposing them for multiple applications. We investigate issues relating to both internal and external interoperability to enable the creation of learning scenarios within the system itself as well as the export of primary multimedia objects into an independent, external Learning Content Management System for the creation of complex Learning Objects.
An environment for the analysis and reconstruction of archaeological objects
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Laugerotte, C.; Warzée, N.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
To assist archaeologists in their work of analysis and reconstruction of archaeological objects from their fragments, several environments have been developped in which virtual fragments can be manipulated. As a part of these environments, an important tool consists in automating the search for correct assemblages between two 3D objects by evaluating their matching surfaces. In this paper, we describe a new environment for computer aided reconstruction of archaeological objects and we propose a new method to estimate the quality of an association based on a surface area evaluation.
An Authoring Tool for Interactive Digital Storytelling
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Linaza, M.T.; Eskudero, H.; Lamsfus, C.; Marcos, G.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
Stories that are read are usually linear and fixed in their form and structure. Stories that are told are often flexible in these respects: the storyteller can change order and content in response to the audience reaction and participation. Interactive multimedia and digital storytelling technologies now make the presentation of interactive stories possible, with non-linear narrative flow and dynamic character definitions and developments. Authoring such interactive stories has thus become a new challenge for authors and artists. We report on the development and initial tests of a prototype authoring support tool that is intended to support authors in the design, construction and specification of Digital Interactive Stories for multimedia presentation platforms. This Authoring Tool is part of the art-E-fact project- a collaborative project funded by the EU- in which it serves as an experimental platform for understanding how artists and authors want to create these new kinds of 'Digital Stories'.
Virtual San Storytelling for Children: Content vs. Experience
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Ladeira, I.; Blake, E. H.; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
This paper describes the development of a Virtual Environment (VE) for telling a traditional San story. The San are an indigenous hunter-gatherer people of southern Africa whose traditional lifestyle has become almost extinct. We present a study which gauges the effectiveness of a San storytelling VE with high-school students. We defined an effective cultural storytelling experience as one in which the story is understood and enjoyed. We explored the possibility of fostering an interest in the story's cultural context. We drew from a number of disciplines in this paper: archeology, film and VE authoring for the creation of our VE; educational theory and psychology research principles in our experimental methodology. In our study we evaluated the effectiveness of a storytelling VE in comparison to reading a story as text.We considered comprehension of the story, the amount of subsequent interest shown in the San culture and the level of enjoyment, boredom and confusion. We found that comprehension of the story was significantly higher for the text group than for the Virtual Reality (VR) group (F(1)
Developing the Tourism Aspects of a Cultural Route
(The Eurographics Association, 2004) Owen, Ruth; Buhalis, Dimitrios; Pletinckx, Daniël; Y. Chrysanthou and K. Cain and N. Silberman and F. Niccolucci
A cultural route links destinations that contain illustrations of a common theme, for example religion. It has been reported that the number of cultural routes are increasing. However, to date there is no evidence in the literature of any studies developing a framework which outlines the information visitors may require when following a cultural route. This paper describes a framework which is designed to be used by those responsible for planning and implementing cultural routes. The framework also serves as the structure of a web portal that is intended to act as an example of good practice for other cultural route portals to follow. Keywords: Documentation, Internet, Portal

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