GCH 2024 - Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage

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https://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/3607042

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PlateUNLP: An Open-Source Solution for Automating the Digitization of Historical Astronomical Plates
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Ponte Ahón, Santiago Andres; Aidelman, Yael; Seery, Juan Martín; Quiroga, Facundo; Ronchetti, Franco; Hasperué, Waldo; Iannuzzi, M.; Peralta, R.; López, M.; Bariviera, Aurelio F.; Cidale, Lydia; Gamen, Roberto; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
The Observatorio Astronómico de La Plata belonging to the Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas (FCAG) of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) is among the oldest astronomical institutions in South America. Its extensive collection includes thousands of spectroscopic and photographic glass plates, which were collected between the early 1900s and the 1980s by eminent Argentine astronomers. These plates represent a unique and valuable record that remains largely unpublished. In 2019, the Recuperation of Historical Observational Work (ReTrOH, for its initials in Spanish) project initiated a digitization programme to convert over 15,000 plates from the collection into digital format. Given that the manual processing of these plates is intricate, error-prone, and time-consuming, a multidisciplinary team of astronomers and computer scientists was assembled to create a software tool called PlateUNLP. This tool was specifically designed to streamline the digitization process, enhancing efficiency and reducing the potential for errors. PlateUNLP utilizes advanced signal processing and computer vision techniques to automatically identify and isolate each spectrum captured on the plates, attaching the relevant metadata and thus limiting the need for manual intervention. The system is released as open-source software, allowing for broad accessibility. While PlateUNLP was tailored to meet the demands of the ReTrOH project, its adaptable design makes it suitable for digitizing many other plate collections around the world.
Reconstructing Lost Altarpieces: A Differentiable Rendering Approach
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Pagès-Vilà, Anna; Munoz-Pandiella, Imanol; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
Studying works that have completely or partially disappeared is always difficult due to the lack of information. In more fortunate scenarios where photographs were taken before the destruction, the study of the piece is limited by the viewpoints captured in the available photographs. In this interdisciplinary research, we present a new methodology for reconstructing lost altarpieces from a single historical image, utilizing differentiable rendering techniques. We test our methodology by reconstructing some reliefs from the altarpiece of Sant Joan Baptista (Valls, Spain), which was destroyed in 1936. These results are valuable for both experts and the public, as they facilitate a better understanding of the relief's volumetrics and their spatial relationships, representing a significant advancement in the virtual recovery of lost artifacts.
The Fabric of Mixed-Reality Museal Spaces
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Ohl, Stephan; Wagner, Martin; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
Recent advances in eXtended Reality (XR) technology give museums many novel and exciting possibilities for designing interactive exhibition spaces. This short article overviews MIREMUS, a theory that formalizes and unifies the abstract description of such mixed-reality museal spaces. Spatial computing devices can mix real space and digital content in a multitude of different ways. MIREMUS provides a systematic description that has been developed with archeological and cultural heritage museums in mind. Emphasis is put on describing changes over time and qualitatively distinguishing between factual artifacts and hypothesized context. Furthermore, MIREMUS is based on a conceptual abstraction of tele-immersion. This enables us to systematically describe novel museum concepts that join multiple real locations with virtual content into one distributed museal space.
LanternOperAR: Integrating Gamification and Visualization to Engage with Yue Opera in a Hybrid Gift
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Xu, Ningning; Chen, Yifei; Ma, Teng; Mao, Qinglin; Huang, Xinlie; Zhou, Haibo; Sun, Xu; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
LanternOperAR is a hybrid gift designed to engage with Yue Opera in a handheld experience. With a physical installation and a digital application, users can interact with cultural content through meaningful visualizations and gamified interaction. In this paper, we detail the design process, including the methodologies for processing, analyzing, and presenting cultural data, as well as the presenting the physical prototype. Our evaluation supplies empirical evidence and practical guidelines on designing hybrid gifts that transcend traditional cultural products to promote cultural heritage in interactive experiences. It provides valuable insights to researchers and practitioners in the cultural application area.
A Demonstration of Cultural Heritage Re-enactment: Volumetric Depiction of Sibylla Merian
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Kräuter, Noura; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
This demo presents the ''Sibylla Merian'' case study, part of the LoGaCulture project, which investigates the use of volumetric filmed characters to enhance cultural heritage (CH) experiences through head-mounted augmented reality (AR) environments. Utilizing state-of-the-art volumetric video (VV) techniques, the case study aims to create immersive and interactive exhibits by integrating human hologram figures into three-dimensional spaces, bringing historical narratives to life with the authenticity of live actors' performances. By capturing these performances and adapting them for 3D virtual spaces, the case study seeks to enhance both the realism and emotional engagement of AR experiences and connection to history. Additionally, this work evaluates the feasibility and limitations of the current tools available for such advanced applications.
Story Inspiration Station: Encouraging Deeper Engagement with Museum Objects
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Bowen, Simon J.; Rowling, H. C.; Kirk, D.; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
Interactive technologies can support new forms of engagement with Cultural Heritage sites and collections, including participatory interpretation and the production of polyvocal narratives that might challenge the Authorised Heritage Discourse. To explore this potential, we developed Story Inspiration Station (an interactive museum exhibit using digitised museum objects to prompt reflective engagement amongst visitors), which allowed us to investigate how an interactive exhibit can enable and scaffold deeper engagement with objects and democratises their interpretation through visitors' exploration of their own and other's responses to them. Through content analysis of system use and visitor responses (1,514 submissions) and thematic analysis of visitor interviews (n=8) and survey responses (n=6) we provide insights into strategies for deepening engagement with heritage objects and for challenging dominant discourses and provide design considerations for others seeking to digitally support polyvocal engagement with museum collections.
DeepHadad: Enhancing the Readability of Ancient Northwest Semitic Inscriptions
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Aioanei, Andrei C.; Klein, Jonathan; Klein, Konstantin M.; Hunziker-Rodewald, Regine R.; Michels, Dominik L.; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
We present DeepHadad, a novel deep learning approach to improve the readability of severely damaged ancient Northwest Semitic inscriptions. By leveraging concepts of displacement maps and image-to-image translation, DeepHadad effectively recovers text from barely recognizable inscriptions, such as the one on the Hadad statue. A main challenge is the lack of pairs of well-preserved and damaged glyphs as training data since each available glyph instance has a unique shape and is not available in different states of erosion. We overcome this issue by generating synthetic training data through a simulated erosion process, on which we then train a neural network that successfully generalizes to real data. We demonstrate significant improvements in readability and historical authenticity compared to existing methods, opening new avenues for AI-assisted epigraphic analysis.
Immersive Exploration of Ancestral Graphs with TamVR - Design, Evaluation, and Application to Marie Antoinette
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Baikova, Ekaterina; Schreck, Tobias; Preiner, Reinhold; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
Ancestral information, or historic family information, is instrumental in understanding the origin of families and persons. The ancestral information of European nobility is of key importance to understanding historic properties and developments of regions, countries, and their interrelationships. Genealogical information is hence a historic and cultural heritage of highest importance. While historic ancestral information is typically well-curated by historians, its exploration, analysis, and exhibition is often limited by existing tools, especially, limitations of exploring and visualizing ancestral graphs. Recent graph visualization offers advanced visualization and interaction facilities to efficiently and effectively navigate and explore ancestral data sets. The previously introduced Topographic Attribute Maps (TAM) visualization integrates relationship and timeline information in a dense topographic visualization. While the original implementation was focused on desktop-based visual exploration, we propose an immersive analytics design and implementation. We introduce a novel, appropriate and information-rich landscape and settlement/family metaphor and belonging interaction and exploration facilities. Our design supports the engaging and at the same time, effective perception of rich ancestral relationship and temporal data properties. The navigation and mapping facilities invite users to explore the ancestral graph information.We show the usage and effectiveness of our immersive approach by a use case discussion and qualitative feedback obtained from evaluation sessions.
Wedge Detection for Predictive Graphical Annotation of Cuneiform Tablets in 3D
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Bullenkamp, Jan Philipp; Mara, Hubert; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
As Digital Ancient Near Studies (DANES) and Ancient Language Processing (ALP) require larger volumes of annotated documents, we focus on automatically computed graphical annotations for cuneiform tablets, which are among the oldest documents spanning at least three millennia of human history. Cuneiform consists of wedges imprinted on clay tablets, which are best captured by high-resolution 3D acquisition. Existing Open Access 3D models are therefore our data base and have been postprocessed by the GigaMesh software framework, which ensures clean meshes and provides MSII filter responses. This refers to the Gaussian curvature, which is a function value for each vertex of the mesh used for watersheds along the 2D manifold. Watershed labels are determined by non-minimum suppression using a merge parameter. The label contours, i.e., the polygonal lines enclosing the wedges, are smoothed using the Savitzky-Golay filter with the goal of projecting a low-poly line in 2D that can be quickly corrected by the image-based annotation tool known as Cuneur, which allows experts to annotate wedges, signs and semantics. Once the wedges have been determined, wedge types can be automatically proposed using the orientation of the wedges, which is the first step towards a paleographic representation of cuneiform signs, known as PaleoCode.
AI-Driven Classification of a Design Photographic Archive
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Rodriguez Echavarria, Karina; Samaroudi, Myrsini; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
The paper presents a workflow for deploying an Artificial Intelligence (AI) classification of a previously unclassified photographic collection, the Design Archive's glass plate negatives. This involved fine-tuning the DinoV2 self-supervised image retrieval system with a domain-expert taxonomy to classify approximately 10K images within 40 classes. As such, it addresses challenges relevant to the curation, analysis and discovery of large-scale visual collections. A 3D visualisation was implemented for users to access the outputs presenting images as data points using the Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection for Dimension Reduction (UMAP) to project the embeddings of the neural network. The paper demonstrates the advantages of this approach and reflects how users can participate in the AI processes making them more transparent and trustable.
SemanticSplatStylization: Semantic scene stylization based on 3D Gaussian splatting and class-based style transfer
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Sinha, Saptarshi Neil; Graf, Holger; Weinmann, Michael; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
We propose a novel approach for 3D Semantic Style Transfer in 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) that applies style transfer to specific segments of a 3D scene using 2D style images. Our method leverages a finetuning of 3D Gaussian splats and fast 2D class-based style transfer to achieve targeted stylization with superior fidelity and multi-view consistency compared to existing state-of-the- art methods. By incorporating a semantic understanding, our approach ensures precise, context-aware stylization, aligning the visual characteristics of segments with their intended style. The application of 3D Semantic Style Transfer in cultural heritage preservation and restoration holds significant potential. By accurately capturing and transferring styles onto specific segments of cultural heritage objects, our approach demonstrates the potential of providing more accurate and visually appealing stylization results that preserve the integrity and historical significance of cultural heritage artifacts.
Creating Location-based Visual Presence Experiences for Museums with Immersive Technology
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Spierling, Ulrike; Bitter, Jessica L.; Kräuter, Noura; Liu, Yu; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
This Poster (accompanying demos) presents an overview of creative approaches and considerations in the design research process of exploring different feelings of immersion and presence through Augmented Reality with headmounted devices in a museum. It shows ongoing work in the EU-funded project LoGaCulture (Locative Games in Cultural Heritage), in particular in the practical research that develops case studies for a Natural History museum. We summarise design criteria, concepts and prototypical implementations regarding the qualities of presence, playfulness and usability.
Co-Presence with Skeletons: A Multi-User Immersive Augmented Reality Demonstration in Cultural Heritage
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Bitter, Jessica L.; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
In this demonstration description, a prototype is presented that addresses the problem of isolation caused by single-user Augmented Reality (AR) applications used on cultural heritage (CH) sites. Using Microsoft's HoloLens 2 and Android smartphones, multiple visitors can experience the playful AR space together. Visitors follow a virtual guide together whereby authors can customize to how many users the system reacts, and engage in a labeling game in which visitors can collaboratively match Latin names and human bones to physical vertebrates' bones.
MiDRASH - A Project for Computational Analysis of Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Vasyutinsky Shapira, Daria; Kurar-Barakat, Berat; Gogawale, Sharva; Suliman, Mohammad; Dershowitz, Nachum; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
MiDRASH is an international effort that aims to construct a groundbreaking interdisciplinary methodology for a global approach to the study of the treasure trove of medieval literary manuscripts in Hebrew script. It studies materiality, textuality, transmission and historical contexts of the digitized manuscripts in Hebrew, Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic and other vernacular languages.
Towards a Collaborative Authoring Tool for Cultural Heritage Applications: Modelling the Development Process Between Curators and Developers
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Southall, Ethan; Hulusic, Vedad; John, David; Hargood, Charlie; Ó hOisín, Niall; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
Both museums and virtual museums go through a curation process for creating exhibitions, with a variety of methods available. These are often collaborative, requiring both cultural heritage professionals and designers or developers working together. Mixed reality has the potential to enhance this process for the developer and client, in the form of a collaborative mixed reality authoring tool. It is important to understand the process of collaborative development of cultural heritage applications so that the authoring tool could be designed to cater for these needs.In this paper, a user study is presented that analyses the process of delivering three cultural heritage projects by an experienced development company. As a result, a model that captures project stages and collaborative aspects with the clients is created and validated, existing bottlenecks are identified and three authoring tool concepts that could improve the process are generated and discussed. The resulting tool is proposed to aid the collaboration process during the prototype and initial design stages of the development process, which will aid future research.
Demonstration of Playful Interaction Patterns for Head-mounted Device-based AR Experiences in Cultural Heritage
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Liu, Yu; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
This proposal explores AR applications with engaging interaction patterns to provide immersive and entertaining museum experiences. Focusing on cultural heritage, this demonstration showcases innovative interaction patterns for navigation and exhibit activation. The navigation interaction pattern uses dynamic visual and auditory cues, while the exhibit activation interaction pattern incorporates playful orca-inspired elements. Implemented in Unity3D and deployed on HoloLens 2, the demonstration effectively balances usability and entertainment, enhancing visitor engagement and showcasing new AR possibilities for museums.
Dancing through Time: Walking through a Dance Audiovisual Archive
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Alliata, Giacomo; Kenderdine, Sarah; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
Dancing through Time is an interactive installation created to discover the Prix de Lausanne archive, a collection of dance performance recordings over fifty-one years. It consists of a 4k-touch screen mounted on a twelve-meter rail, allowing visitors to walk through the fifty-one editions of the Prix de Lausanne dance competition. This paper presents the installation and the results of an extensive evaluation of users' questionnaires. Our main findings validate Dancing through Time in terms of User Experience and User Engagement, indicating that receiving prior instructions only affects the latter. Furthermore, the interaction logs with the application inform us of the benefits of browsing through the entire collection thanks to the affordances of the interactive system. Finally, we extracted different users' interaction behaviours to understand better how visitors engaged with Dancing through Time in the situated context of the 2024 edition of the Prix.
WebXR Cultural Heritage Tour with Generative AI Characters
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Zöllner, Michael; Gemeinhardt, Jan; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
This paper presents a project focused on enhancing cultural heritage experiences through a WebXR application by integrating generative AI characters. The application, designed for the Fichtelgebirge region in Upper Franconia, Germany, offers users an immersive digital time travel experience within a museum setting. Structured into six interconnected scenes, each representing a different historical period, the WebXR tour features AI-enhanced historic characters that interactively narrate stories and showcase artifacts. Key elements include animated speaking portraits, interactive 3D models, 360-degree panoramas, and style-transferred historic imagery. The project aims to connect physical museum objects with virtual experiences, enriching the user's engagement with local culture and regional identity. Compatible with multiple devices, including VR headsets, web browsers, and mobile devices, the application ensures broad accessibility and cross-media functionality.
Overview of a numerical modelling approach of Neolithic settlements: the instance of the Pointe de la Tranche (France)
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Choplin, Aménaïs; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
The present study is a component of a doctoral thesis on Neolithic settlements in Western France, approached through digital modelling. Although 3D technologies are already employed in the research on megalithic architecture, their utilisation on settlement site is still relatively rare. This investigation focused on the southern coast of Île d'Yeu and the prehistoric barred spur site, la Pointe de la Tranche. The site was excavated from 2010 to 2013, revealing two Late Neolithic enclosures. New fieldwork, including a drone video survey, was added to the data collected during this campaign. The results of this study corroborate and expand upon those of previous investigations, particularly with regard to the different modules utilised in the construction process. The initial hypothesis that existing data could create 3D scenes for new information was partially confirmed. This study's innovation lies in its scale and site type, suggesting further investigation into data reuse and the necessity of the modelling of certain structures.
Colour Fidelity-respecting Workflow for Digital Cultural Heritage Preservation and Documentation
(The Eurographics Association, 2024) Barbero-Álvarez, Miguel Antonio; Brenner, Simon; Corsini, Massimiliano; Ferdani, Daniele; Kuijper, Arjan; Kutlu, Hasan
Colour is considered a representative characteristic of material cultural heritage pieces, especially when documenting them. Especially under digitalization processes, colour needs to be handled and preserved with care, given that digital tools may introduce uncontrolled variations in its representation, if not irreversibly lose it to certain degrees. This work aims to present an empirical workflow in order to successfully respect colour integrity when performing photogrammetry as a cultural heritage documentation asset. An experimental battery based on different combinations of acquisition conditions, RGB debayering, calibration and photogrammetry is presented, and based on the most successful parameters, conclusions are drawn for building guidelines for the optimum performance. The fact that control must be held over all processes to avoid undesired losses of information has been regarded as the highest priority, with the sole exception of the unpredictable colour blending operations during the proper photogrammetry. This paper ultimately demonstrates that preservation of colour information can be achieved on an excellent degree, and that having control over the factors of acquisition and colour digitalization parameters contributes to its success.

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