Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fabio Remondino
Stefano Campana
Published by
Archaeopress
Publishers of British Archaeological Reports
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BAR S2598
3D Recording and Modelling in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage: Theory and best practices
Archaeopress and the individual authors 2014
www.hadrianbooks.co.uk
The current BAR catalogue with details of all titles in print, prices and means of payment is available free
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Mario SANTANA QUINTERO
development of infrastructure. As well as, armed
conflicts, weathering, and pure vandalism.
INTRODUCTION
Digitally capturing cultural heritage resources have
become nowadays a common practice. Recording the
physical
characteristics
of
historic
structures,
archaeological sites and landscapes is a cornerstone of
their conservation, whatever it means actively
maintaining them or making a posterity record. The
information produced by such activity potentially would
guide decision-making by property owners, site
managers, public officials, and conservators around the
world, as well as, to present historic knowledge and
values of these resources. Rigorous documentation may
also serve a broader purpose: over time, it becomes the
primary means by which scholars and the public
apprehend a site that has since changed radically or
disappeared.
The rapid rise in new digital technologies has revolutionized the practice of recording heritage places. Digital
tools and media offer a myriad of new opportunities for
collecting, analyzing and disseminating information, with
these new opportunities; there are also conflicts and
constraints, involving fragmentation, longevity and
reliability of information. As well as, the threat of
generating digital representations that might falsify
instead of simplifying the understanding of our heritage.
Furthermore, a record can be used for promotion leading
to participation, increasing the knowledge about a
heritage place. It can be a tool for promoting the
participation of society in its conservation, a tool for
cultural tourism and regional development2.
FINAL REMARKS
Further readings
1. CLARK, Catherine M. 2001. Informed conservation:
Understanding historic buildings and their landscapes
for conservation. London: English Heritage.
Other assessments.
1
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
GEOMATICS NEEDS
All of this has at the moment not come to pass for those
who intend to operate in 3D (or 4D). This represents an
absolutely central problem which lies at the root of many
present-day limits in the diffusion of 3D working. In
particular this very serious lacuna expresses itself most of
all in the absence of 3D analytical instruments and
therefore in the difficulty of extracting original
archaeological information not otherwise identifiable in
2D limiting the contribution of 3D to an increase in the
quality of the documentation and to the successive
elaborations focused on communication. A significant
outcome, though altogether secondary in respect of the
primary capacity which archaeological data ought to be
explained: new archaeological information. As has been
said many times by Maurizio Forte, of the Duke
University in the USA, a fundamental need lies in the
availability for archaeologists of an OPEN-SPACE into
which it is possible to insert data acquired at various
times in the past, stratifying the information and at every
stage measuring and comparing the original observations,
data or stratigraphical relationships but also wherever
possible modifying and updating that data in the light of
new evidence. GIS provides an open working
environment which allows the management, analysis,
data enhancement, processing, visualisation and sharing
of hypothetical interpretations. The first change of
practice that this thought ought to provoke is a move
towards the acquisition and management of 3D data from
the very outset of any research project rather than (as so
often happens) at the end of the cognitive process: we
should no longer find ourselves in the position to hear
people say Now that we have studied everything lets
make a nice reconstruction (Forte 2008). This should
lead to a reversal of the process in which the 3D model
no longer constitutes the end but rather the means of
achieving better understanding through analysis and
simulation. It should also promote the better sharing and
communication of archaeological information, ideas and
concepts, in the first instance amongst our professional
colleagues and then with the public at large.
10
Reference
BATESON, G. 1979. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity
(Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the
Human Sciences). Hampton Press.
BERTOCCI, S.; BINI, M. 2012. Manuale di rilievo
architettonico e urbano, Torino.
BEWLEY, R.H. 2005. Aerial Archaeology. The first
century. Bourgeois J., Meganck M. (Eds.), Aerial
Photography and Archaeology 2003. A century of
information, Academia Press, Ghent, pp. 15-30.
BEWLEY, R.H.; CRUTCHLEY, S.; SHELL, C. 2005. New
light on an ancient landscape: LiDAR survey in the
Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Antiquity, 79 (305),
pp. 636-647.
CASTAGNOLI, F.; SCHMIEDT, G. 1957. Lantica citt di
Norba, in LUniverso, XXXVII, pp. 125-148.
COWLEY, D.C.; OPITZ, R.O. 2012. Interpreting
Archaeological Topography. 3D Data, Visualisation
and Observation, Oxford.
DEVEREUX, B.J.; AMABLE, G.S.; CROW, P.; CLIFF, A.D.
2005. The potential of airborne lidar for detection of
archaeological features under woodland canopies,
Antiquity, 79 (305), pp. 648-660.
1.2 CONCLUSION
Finally, a brief personal reflection on those who
undertake research and the ways in which research can be
pursued. The writer has long been a keen supporter of the
view that technological and methodological research in
archaeology, and in heritage management generally,
should be initiated or at least guided by the desire to
answer essentially historical questions. This implies a
central role for the archaeologist but at the same time
requires him to acquire technical skills so that he can
work closely and productively with engineers, physicists
and other specialist. Every other approach carries with it
the risk of a degenerative drift in research. However, the
experience of the last few years of experimentation in 3D
technology has led him to take a more flexible line,
without in any sense denying the central role of the
archaeologist and of inherently archaeological questions.
That said, he now sees possible value in testing
innovative technologies without necessarily starting from
specific archaeological question rather than from the
desire to see whether such techniques can offer
11
12
Traditional recording methods were mainly hand recording, e.g. by means of tape measurement, so subjective,
time consuming and applicable only to small areas. On
the other hand Geomatics 3D recording methods (see Fig.
2) are modern, digital, objective, rapid, 3D and cost
effective. Geomatics techniques rely on harnessing the
electromagnetic spectrum and they are generally classified in active (ranges) and passive (images) techniques.
Figure 3 summarizes the available Geomatics sensors and
data according to the different working scales.
Figure 2. Geomatics techniques for 3D data acquisition, shown according to the object/scene dimensions
and complexity of the reconstructed digital model
Figure 3. Existing Geomatics data and sensors according to the working scale
and object/scene to be surveyed
14
16
ARCHAEOLO
OGICAL AND GEOMATIC
E
NEEDSS
that
t
formfactoor varies withh surface irreg
gularities, butt
not
n with overaall elongation..
4) Quadrature:
Q
The degree of quadraturee of a solid,,
where
w
1 is a square and 00.800 an isoscceles triangle..
This
T shape is expressed
e
by:
p
4 Area
A
In
I the equation, p is the perrimeter of thee contour, andd
Area
A
is a meassure of the surrface of the ob
bject.
Shap
pe indexes allow the inteegration of all parameterss
relatted with the 2D
2 geometry of the objects interfaciall
boun
ndaries into a single measuurement in succh a way thatt
a sttatistical com
mparison of ssuch parametters allows a
com
mplete descripttion of visual variability in
n a populationn
of material
m
evidennces (Barcel 2010).
length
width
or
Unfo
fortunately, many
m
of the ddescriptors that have beenn
prop
posed for 2D
D shape meaasures cannott be directlyy
geneeralized to 3D
D (Lian, 20110), and we have alreadyy
argu
ued the relevannce of a propeer 3D analysis. Up to now,,
just a few globall form descripptors with dirrect meaningss
for 3D
3 models haave been propposed, where each of them
m
desccribes 3D objeects in a quitee different maanner, therebyy
prov
viding new and independentt information..
MaximumDiiameter
MinimumDiaameter
1) The
T extent to which a 3D m
mesh is spherrical (Wadell,,
1935;
1
Asahinna, 2011). T
The sphericity
y, , of ann
observed
o
enttity (as meaasured using
g the range-scanning
s
deviice) is the ratiio of the surfface area of a
sphere
s
with thhe same volum
me as the given
n entity to thee
surface
s
area off the entity:
4 Area
p
2
(6Vp)
=
Ap
where
w
Vp is volume
v
of thee object or archaeological
a
l
building
b
struccture and Ap is the surfacee area of thee
object.
o
The spphericity of a sphere is 1 and, by thee
isoperimetric
i
inequality, anny particle which
w
is not a
sphere
s
will haave sphericity less than 1.
2) The
T
extent too which a 33D mesh is a cube. Thee
cubeness
c
Cd (S)of
(
an obseerved entity (as measuredd
using
u
the rangge-scanning ddevice) is thee ratio of thee
surface
s
area of
o a cube witth the same volume
v
as thee
given
g
entity too the surface aarea of the entity:
3) Shape Factor
F
(or Formfactor).
F
It is similaar to
Roundnesss, but emphaasizes the configuration of
o the
perimeterr rather than thhe length relaative to object area.
fact that a circle
It is bassed on the mathematical
m
c
(Shape faactor value alsso equal to 1.00), compared to all
other twoo-dimensionall shapes (reggular or irreguular),
has the smallest
s
perim
meter relative to its area. Since
S
every objject has a perrimeter lengthh and an area, this
mathemaatical relationsship can be ussed to quantiffy the
degree too which an objects
o
perim
meter departs from
that of a smooth circlee, resulting inn a value less than
1.0. Squaares are aroundd 0.78. A thinn thread-like object
o
would haave the lowest shape factor approaching
a
0
0.
Where
W
A(S) iss the area of thhe enclosing surface.
s
If thee
shape
s
is subddivided into ffacets or voxeels, then n(S))
reprents
r
the nuumber of diffferent faces which form thee
shape.
s
Cd (S)) picks up thhe highest possible valuee
(which
(
is 1) if
i and only iff the measureed shape is a
cube.
c
4Area
p2
18
Only the first category is the consequence of using rangescanning and similar technology. This list suggests that
reasoning about the functionality of archaeological
objects recovered at the archaeological site requires a
cross-disciplinary investigation ranging from recognition
techniques used in computer vision and robotics to
reasoning, representation, and learning methods in
artificial intelligence. To review previous work on
approaches relevant to tool use and reasoning about
functionality, we can divide current approaches in two
main categories: systems that interact with objects and
environments, and systems that do not.
Acknowledgment
This research is part of the project PADICAT (Patrimoni
Digital Arqueolgic de Catalunya), funded by the Obra
Social la Caixa and the Asociaci dUniversitats
Catalanes (Programa Recer Caixa, RECER2010-05).
Parts of it have been funded by the project Social and
environmental transitions: Simulating the Past to
understand human behavior, funded by the Spanish
Ministry for Science and Innovation, under the program
CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010, CSD2010-00034. We
also acknowledge funds from Spanish Ministry of
Science and Innovation, through Grant No. HAR200912258 awarded to J.A. Barcel.
CONCLUSIONS
Archaeology should not be reduced to the visualization of
artefacts and buildings, but a complete simulation where
the archaeologist can modify the geometry and other
characteristics, redefine parameters, assign new values
and settings or any other input data, select another
simulation study or run a new simulation test, to test the
validity of the model itself. The aim is not to prove that
any single visualization correctly captures all the past but
only that the explanantions are sufficiently diverse, given
available knowledge, that the dynamics of a concrete
historical situation should be contained within the
proposed explanatory model.
Bibliography
ASAHINA, D.; TAYLOR, M.A. 2011. Geometry of irregular
particles: Direct surface measurements by 3-D laser
scanner. Powder Technology 213, 70-78. Elsevier.
22
2
AERIAL AND TERRESTRIAL
LASER SCANNING
2.1.1 INTRODUCTION
The adoption of airborne laser scanning (ALS) for
archaeological landscape survey over the last decade has
been a revolution in prospection that some have likened
to the inception of aerial photography a century ago.
Commonly referred to as LiDaR (Light Detection and
Ranging)1, this survey technique records high resolution
height data that can be modelled in a number of ways to
represent the macro and micro topography of a landscape.
Arguably the most exciting aspect of this technique is the
ability to remove vegetation to visualise the ground
surface beneath a tree canopy (Crow et al., 2007; Crow,
2009), but its value has also been shown in open
landscapes and as a key component of multi-sensor
survey (Bennett et al., 2011, 2012).
25
The initial processing steps for ALS data are most often
done by the data supplier but are worth mentioning
26
Figure 4. An example of orange peel patterning caused by uncorrected point heights at the edges of swaths.
The overlay demonstrates uncorrected data which in the red overlap zones appears speckled
and uneven compared with the same areas in the corrected (underlying) model
27
For full waveform data, the echo width and amplitude can
be used to improve the classification and filtering process
Figure 6. Two examples of common interpolation techniques: IDW (left) and Bicubic Spline (right)
34
2.1.7 CONCLUSIONS
Through the course of this chapter a number of key
factors to consider when using ALS data for historic
environment assessment have already been raised. Users
must be aware of issues such as mode of capture,
resolution and pre-processing of the ALS data, all of
which should be made clear by the provision of adequate
metadata by the data supplier. Attention should be given
to the original purpose of the data, usually hydrological
or environmental monitoring, and any filtering that has
been undertaken and how this might affect the representation of archaeological features. This is not to say that
archive data collected for other purposes is not useful to
archaeologists, (the ever-increasing number of studies
testify this is clearly not the case) rather that users of the
data should familiarise themselves with the technical
details and make clear the processing applied to a dataset.
References
AXELSSON, Peter 2000. DEM Generation from Laser
Scanner Data Using Adaptive TIN Models. ISPRS
35
WINTERBOTTOM, S.J.; DAWSON, T. 2005. Airborne multispectral prospection for buried archaeology in mobile
sand dominated systems. Archaeological Prospection
12, pp. 205-219.
YOON, J.-S.; SHIN, J.-I.; LEE, K.-S. 2008. Land Cover
Characteristics of Airborne LiDAR Intensity Data: A
Case Study. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters,
IEEE DOI 10.1109/LGRS.2008.2000754 5, pp. 801805.
36
Principle
The kind of light that first allowed to create a 3D scanner
is the laser light. Due to its physical properties it allows
37
tan
p
f
zA
b
tan tan
39
Figure 3. Acquisition of coordinates along a different profiles generated by multiple sheets of white light
Principles
Active TOF range sensing is logically derived from the
so-called total station. This is made by a theodolite,
namely an optical targeting device for aiming at a specific
point in space, coupled with a goniometer for precisely
measuring horizontal and vertical orientations, integrated
with an electronic distance meter. TOF, or time of flight,
is referred to the method used for estimating the sensorto-target distance, that is usually done by measuring the
time needed by light for travelling from the light source
to the target surface and back to the light detector
integrated in the electronic distance meter.
x A sin
zA cos
In case of a real 3D situation, in addition to the vertical
angle an horizontal angle will be given, and the set of
coordinate (xA, yA, zA) will be obtained by a simple
40
Figure 4. Acquisition of coordinates of the point A through the a priori knowledge of the angle , and the
measurement of the distance through the Time Of Flight of a light pulse from the sensor to the object and back
An interesting sensor fusion is given by the RangeImaging (RIM) cameras which integrate distance
measurements (based on the TOF principle) and imaging
aspects. RIM sensors are not treated in this chapter as not
really suitable for 3D modeling applications.
TOF c
2
Therefore a small deviation in estimating TOF, for example in the order of 20 ps, will give a corresponding range
deviation r=1/2 x (20 x 10-12) x (3 x 108) m = 3 mm.
For some recent models of laser scanner based on this
principle (Riegel, 2010), the device is capable to detect
multiple reflected pulses by a single transmitted pulse,
provided by situations where multiple targets are present
on the laser trajectory (e.g. a wall behind tree leaves). In
this case the cloud of points is not anymore a 2.5D entity.
41
sTX cos( 0 t)
and the signal generated by re-converting in electrical
form the light backscattered by the surface and received
by the range sensor:
sRX cos( 0 t )
A CW laser scanner implement an electronic mixing the
two signals, that corresponds to a multiplication of these
two contributions. It can be reduced as follows:
1
1
cos( 0 t) cos( 0 t ) cos(2 0 t ) cos( )
2
2
The result is a contribution at double the modulating
frequency, that can be cut through a low-pass filter, and a
continuous contribution, directly proportional to phase
difference , that can be estimated. Since this angular
value is directly proportional to the TOF, from this value
the range can be evaluated similarly to the previous case.
This indirect estimation of TOF allows a better
performance in term of uncertainty for two main reasons:
a) since the light sent to the target is continuous, much
more energy can be transmitted respect to the PW case,
and the consequent signal-to-noise ratio of the received
signal is higher; b) the low-passing filtering required for
extracting the useful signal component involves a cut also
on the high frequency noise, resulting in a further
decrease of noise respect to signal.
42
Resolution
According to VIM, resolution is the smallest change in a
quantity being measured that causes a perceptible change
in the corresponding indication. This definition, once
referred to non-contact 3D imaging, is intended as the
minimum geometrical detail that the range device is
capable to capture. This is influenced by the device
mechanical, optical and electronic features. Of course
such value represents the maximum resolution allowed by
the 3D sensor. For its 3D nature it can be divided in two
components: the axial resolution, along the optical axis of
the device (usually indicated as z), and the lateral
resolution, on the xy plane (MacKinnon et al., 2008).
Trueness (accuracy)
VIM definition indicates accuracy in general as
closeness of agreement between a measured quantity
value and a true quantity value of a measurand. When
such theoretical entity has to be evaluated for an actual
instrument, including a 3D sensor, such value has to be
experimentally estimated from the instrument output. For
this reason VIM also define trueness as closeness of
agreement between the average of an infinite number of
replicate measured quantity values and a reference
quantity value. It is a more practical parameter that can
be numerically estimated as the difference between a 3D
value assumed as true (because measured with a method
far more accurate), and the average of a sufficiently large
number of samples acquired through the range device to
be characterized. Such parameter refers therefore to the
systematic component of the measurement error with
respect to the real data (exemplified in fig. 5) and can be
minimized through an appropriate sensor calibration. For
3D sensors, accuracy might be evaluated both for the
axial direction (z) than for a lateral one (on the xy plane).
In general, accuracy on depth is the most important, and
varies from few hundredths to few tenths of a millimetre
for triangulation based sensors and FM-CW laser
scanners, it is in the order of 1-2 mm for CW laser
scanners, and in the order of 2-20 mm for PW laser
scanners.
Uncertainty (precision)
Precision is the closeness of agreement between
indications or measured quantity values obtained by
replicate measurements on the same or similar objects
under specified conditions (JCGM, 2008). A practical
value for estimating such agreement is to calculate the
dispersion of the quantity values being attributed to a
measurand through the standard deviation of the
measured values respect to their average (or a multiple of
it), defined by VIM as uncertainty (fig. 5).
As accuracy is influenced by systematic errors, precision
is mostly influenced by random errors, leading to a
certain level of unpredictability of the measured value,
due to thermal noise in the sensors detector, and, in case
of laser based devices, by the typical laser speckle effect
(Baribeau & Rioux 1991).
43
44
Point-clouds alignment
Once the first two range maps of a set are aligned, ICP
can be applied to other adjacent point clouds up the full
coverage of the surface of interest. This progressive pairwise alignment may lead to a considerable error propagation, clearly noticeable on closed surfaces when the
first range map has to be connected with the last one. For
this reason global versions of ICP have been conceived,
where the orientation of each range map is optimized respect to all neighbour range maps (Gagnon et al., 1994).
Figure 6. ICP alignment process: a) selection of corresponding points on two partially superimposed
range maps; b) rough pre-alignment; c) accurate alignment after a few iterations
b
Figure 7. Mesh generation: a) set of ICP aligned
range maps. Different colours indicate the
individual range maps; b) merge of all
range maps in a single polygonal mesh
purposes. In case of large and complex model the pointbased rendering technique does not give satisfactory
results and does not provide realistic visualization. The
visualization of a 3D model is often the only product of
interest for the external world, remaining the only
possible contact with the 3D data. Therefore a realistic
and accurate visualization is often required. Furthermore
the ability to easily interact with a huge 3D model is a
continuing and increasing problem. Indeed model sizes
(both in geometry and texture) are increasing at faster rate
than computer hardware advances and this limits the
possibilities of interactive and real-time visualization of
the 3D results. Due to the generally large amount of data
and its complexity, the rendering of large 3D models is
done with multi-resolution approaches displaying the
large meshes with different Levels of Detail (LOD),
simplification and optimization approaches (Dietrich et
al., 2007).
48
Scan Scale
Planning
As known several factors may affect the quality of 3D
data acquired by a range device. Equipment choices,
logistics and environmental conditions such as
temperature and humidity has to be considered in a
survey planning, especially when operating in the middle
of a forest, like in this specific case. An accurate
evaluation of such factors allows optimizing the 3D
acquisition, minimizing possible problems that can occur
during the survey. Logistics and weather conditions
become crucial specially if the survey project has to be
planned abroad, with no possibility to travel back and
forth to the lab, and little or no possibility to lose
operating days for possible logistic delays (such as for
example days or weeks lost for custom controls, typical
when instrumentation is sent trough a courier), or on the
field, due to bad climate conditions.
Operating
Sampling step
Distance
Qualitative Quantitative (mm)
(m)
Framework
8-16
Coarse
7-60
Architecture
4-8
Medium
4-15
High
1-2
Details
Figure 9. Structure of the G Group of temples in MySon: a) map of the G area drawn by the archaeologist
Parmentier in the early 20th century (Stern, 1942); b) fisheye image taken from above during the 2011
survey. The ruins of the mandapa (G3) are visible in the upper part of the image, the posa (G5)
on the right, the gopura (G2) in the center, and the footprint of the holy wall all around
b
a
Figure 10. Handmade structures arranged on the field by local workers for locating the laser scanner in
the appropriate positions: a) mounting the platform on the top of the structure surrounding the Kalan;
b) laser scanner located on the platform at 7 meters above the ruins; c) multi-section ladder for reaching
the platform; d) structure for elevating the scanner at 3 m from ground. During 3D acquisition
the operator lies in the blind cone below the scanner in order to avoid the laser beam trajectory
1. architectonic
images
for
texturing
projection
purposes;
51
Figure 11. Map of the hill where the G Group is located within the My Son Area, with
the scanner positions for acquiring different structures highlighted by colored dots
Figure 12. Sculpted tympanum representing Krishna dancing on the snakes, originally at the entrance of the kalan:
a) 3D laser scanning in the store room of the museum; b) reality-based model from the 3D data
experimenting
techniques.
52
Structure
From
Motion
(SFM)
Table 2. Number of point clouds acquired at different resolution levels (first three columns), and total number of
3D points acquired during the whole 3D survey of the G Group and the related decorations (last column)
Resolution
Coarse
Medium
High
# points
(x 106)
G1 (Kalan)
43
22
126
G2 (Portal)
21
G3 (Assembly hall)
15
G4 (South building)
13
31
DTM
49
27
21 Finds
60
Total
56
79
86
226
Figure 13. High resolution capture of the Foundation stone through SFM: a) texturized 3D model measured through
a sequence of 24 images shot around the artifact; b) mesh model of the central part of the stone with a small area
highlighted in red; c) color-coded deviations of the SFM acquired points from a best-fitting plane calculated
on the red area of b), clearly showing a the nearly 2 mm carving on the stone
Each sub-cloud was then meshed. The resulting highresolution polygonal models presented both several
topological errors, due to residual errors survived to the
cleaning phase, and a considerable number of lacking
mesh portions, due to occlusions originated by the
complex geometries involved. All these lacks were closed
with a manual identification process, choosing the best
closing algorithm for each situation. This was needed for
the different characteristics of the lacks in terms of size,
position within the model (flat plane, edge, corner, etc.)
and polygonal complexity of the borders. An automatic or
semi-automatic approach would have risked to neglect
these differences, generating not reliable mesh portions in
the reality-based model. As a consequence such process
was very long for irregular structures as the most ruined
buildings.
54
b
a
c
d
e
Figure 16. Reality-based models of all ruins in the G group obtained from 3D data generated by a laser scanner at 1 cm
resolution and texturized with the actual images of the buildings: a) G1, the main temple; b) G2, the entrance portal to
the holy area; c) G3, the assembly hall; d) G4, the south building; e) G5; the kiosk of the foundation stone
Figure 17. Reality-based models of eight of the 21 decorations found during the G Group excavations and acquired
in the My Son museum. All these decorations have been acquired with a sampling step between 1 and 2 mm,
and post processed in order to strongly reduce the significant measurement noise but not the tiniest details
of their shapes. The visual representation in this rendering have been made with a seamless texture
2.2.8 CONCLUSIONS
This chapter reported an overview of the actual optical
3D measurements sensors and techniques used for
terrestrial 3D modelling and a practical application of 3D
acquisition in an archaeological area. The last 15 years of
applications made clear that reality-based 3D models are
very useful in many fields but the related processing
pipeline is still far from being optimal, with possible
improvements and open research issues in many steps.
56
deveeloped, no sim
mple tools suiitable for non
n-expert userss
are available
a
yet.
knowledgmen
nts
Ack
ABD
DEL-AZIZ, Y.I. & KARARA, H.M. 1971. Direct linearr
trans-formatio
t
on from com
mparator coordinates intoo
object
o
space coordinates iin close-rangee photogram-metry,
m
Proc. of the Sym
mposium on Close-Rangee
Photogramme
P
etry, Falls Chhurch (VA) USA,
U
pp. 1-18.
1
KOBBELT, L. & BOTSCH, M. 2004. A survey of pointbased techniques in computer graphics. Computers
and Graphics, Vol. 28, No. 6, pp. 801-814.
STAMOS, I.; LIU, L.; CHEN, C.; WOLBERG, G.; YU, G.;
ZOKAI, S. 2008. Integrating automated range
registration with multiview geometry for the
photorealistic modelling of large-scale scenes. Int. J.
Comput. Vis., Vol. 78, pp. 237-260.
60
3
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
3D RECORDING
G AND MODELLING IN ARCHAEO
OLOGY AND CULTURAL
U
HERITA
AGE
Figurre 1. The collinnearity principple establishedd between thee camera projeection center, a point in the image
and thee correspondinng point in the object spacee (left). The multi-image
m
cooncept, where the 3D objectt can be
reconstructted using multtiple collinearrity rays betweeen corresponnding image pooints (right)
use and with veryy high accuraccy potentials; (iii) an objectt
can be reconstruucted even iif it has disappeared orr
conssiderably channged using aarchived imag
ges (Gruen ett
al., 2004). But large
l
experience is requirred to derivee
accu
urate and detaailed 3D moddels from imaages. This hass
limitted a lot the use
u of photoggrammetry in favour of thee
more powerful acctive 3D senssors (see chap
pter 2), whichh
allow
w easily the derivation
d
of ddense and detaailed 3D pointt
clou
uds with no user processingg. This is slig
ghtly changedd
in th
he last yearss thank to neew automated
d procedures,,
push
hed by the Coomputer Visioon community
y and adoptedd
in th
he photogrammetric pipelinne (e.g. Pierro
ot-Deseillignyy
et all., 2011).
least two im
mages, the diffferent relative positions of
o the
object in thee images (thee so-called paarallaxes) alloows a
stereoscopic view and the derivation of 3D informatioon of
the scene seeen in the overllapping area of
o the images.
Photogramm
metry is used inn many fields, from the tradditional mapping, to structure monitoring and
a 3D city modem
lling, from thhe video gam
mes movie inddustry to induustrial
inspections, from heritagee documentatiion to the meedical
field. Photoggrammetry waas always connsidered a maanual
and time coonsuming procedure but inn the last deccade,
thanks to thhe developmennts achieved by the Compputer
Vision comm
munity, great improvementts have been done
and nowadaays many fuully automated proceduress are
available. When
W
the projeects goal is the recovery of a
complete, deetailed, precise and reliablee 3D model, some
s
user interacction in the modelling pipeline is still
mandatory, in
i particular for
f geo-refereencing and quuality
control. Thuus photogramm
metry does not
n aim at thee full
automation of
o the image processing
p
buut it has alwayys as
first goal thee recovery of metric and acccurate resultss. On
the other hannd, for appliccations needinng 3D modells for
simple visuaalization or Virtual
V
Realityy (VR) uses, fully
automated 3D
D modelling procedures
p
caan also be adoopted
(Vergauwen and Van Gool, 2006; Snaavely et al., 2008;
2
Autodesk 123DCatch webb-service).
3.1.3
3 BASIC PR
RINCIPLES O
OF THE
PHOTOGR
RAMMETRIIC TECHNIQ
QUE
The basic principple of the phottogrammetric processing iss
the use of multiple images (at least tw
wo) and thee
colliinearity princiiple (Fig. 1). Such princip
ple establishess
the relationship
r
between imagee and object space definingg
a strraight line bettween the cam
mera perspective center, thee
imag
ge point P(x, y) and the obbject point P(X
X, Y, Z). Thee
colliinearity model is formulatedd as:
x f
cam
mera constant or
o focal lengthh
x0, y0
X 0 , Y 0 , Z0
elem
ments of the rootation matrix
x, y
2D image
i
coordinnates (tie poinnts)
X, Y, Z
3D object
o
coordinnates
(1)
r ( X X 0 ) r22 (Y Y0 ) r32 ( Z Z0 )
y f 12
y0
r13 ( X X 0 ) r23 (Y Y0 ) r33 ( Z Z0 )
with
h:
64
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
e A x l
(2)
with
e = error vector;
A = design matrix n x m (number of observations x
number of unknowns, n>m) with the coefficients
of the linearized collinearity equations;
x = unknowns vector (exterior parameters, 3D object
coordinates, eventually interior parameters);
l = observation vector (i.e. the measurements).
Generally a weight matrix P is added in order to weight
the observations and unknown parameters during the
estimation procedure. The estimation of x and the
variance factor is usually (but not exclusively)
attempted as unbiased, minimum variance estimation,
performed by means of least squares and results in:
x ( A T PA ) 1 A T Pl
XYZ
(3)
v T Pv
r
(6)
v A x l
qS xy
(4)
(5)
Observations
Unknowns
Resection
Intersection
3D coordinates
(7)
(8)
with:
x x x0 ;
y y y0 ;
r2 x2 y 2 ;
Browns model is generally called physical model as
all its components can be directly attributed to physical
error sources. The individual parameters represent:
x0, y0, f = correction for the interior orientation
elements;
Ki = parameters of radial lens distortion;
Pi = parameters of decentering distortion;
Sx = scale factor in x to compensate for possible nonsquare pixel;
a = shear factor for non-orthogonality and geometric
deformation of the pixel.
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Figure 2. A typical terrestrial image network acquired ad-hoc for a camera calibration
procedure, with convergent and rotated images (a). A set of terrestrial images
acquired ad-hoc for a 3D reconstruction purpose (b)
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Y
c
Figuure 4. 3D recoonstruction off architectural structures witth manual meaasurements inn order to geneerate
a simple 3D moodel with the main
m geometrrical features (a).
( Dense 3D reconstructioon via automatted
image matching
m
(b). Digital
D
Surfacee Model (DSM
M) generationn from satellitee imagery
(Geo-Eyye stereo-pairr) for 3D landsscape visualizzation (c)
are known
k
(e.g. iff it is a photoogrammetric model
m
and thee
imag
ges are orienteed) otherwise an interactivee procedure iss
requ
uired (e.g. if thhe model has bbeen generateed using rangee
senssors and the texture
t
comess from a sepaarate imagingg
senssor). Indeed homologue
h
pooints between the 3D meshh
and the 2D imagge to-be-mappped should bee identified inn
ordeer to find the alignment trransformation necessary too
map
p the colour information onto the mesh. Althoughh
som
me automatedd approaches were proposed in thee
research communnity (Lensch eet al., 2000; Corsini
C
et al.,,
2009
9), no automaated commerciial solution is available andd
this is a bottlenecck of the entiire 3D modellling pipeline..
ment is donee
Thus, in practicaal cases, the 2D-3D alignm
with
h the well-knnown DLT aapproach (Abdel-Aziz andd
Karaara, 1971), oftten referred ass Tsai method
d (Tsai, 1986)..
Corrresponding pooints between the 3D geometry and a 2D
D
imag
ge to-be-mapped are sougght to retrievee the interiorr
and exterior unkknown camerra parameters. The colourr
3.1.9 TEXT
TURE MAPPIING AND VIISUALIZATIION
A polygonall 3D model can
c be visualiized in wirefrrame,
shaded or texxtured mode. A textured 3D
D geometric model
m
is probably the
t most desiirable 3D objeect documenttation
by most sincce it gives, at the same timee, a full geom
metric
and appearaance represenntation and alllows unrestrricted
interactive visualization and
a manipulation at a varieety of
lighting condditions. The photo-realistic
p
c representatioon of
a polygonal model (or evven a point cloud)
c
is achiieved
c
imagess onto the 3D
D geometric data.
mapping a colour
The 3D data can be in forrm of points or
o triangles (m
mesh),
according too the applicaations and requirements.
The
r
texturing off 3D point clouds (poinnt-based rendering
techniques (Kobbelt and Botsch, 20044) allows a faster
f
visualizationn, but for detaailed and com
mplex 3D moddels it
is not an apppropriate methhod. In case of
o meshed datta the
texture is auttomatically mapped
m
if the camera
c
param
meters
69
3D RECORDING
G AND MODELLING IN ARCHAEO
OLOGY AND CULTURAL
U
HERITA
AGE
information is
i then projeccted (or assignned) to the suurface
polygons ussing a coloour-vertex enncoding, a mesh
m
parameterizaation or an extternal texture.
In Computerr Graphics appplications, the texturing cann also
be performedd with techniqques able to graphically
g
moodify
the derived 3D geometrry (displacem
ment mappingg) or
simulating thhe surface irreegularities witthout touching the
geometry (bbump mappinng, normal mapping,
m
parrallax
mapping).
In the texturre mapping phase
p
some problems
p
can arise
due to lighhting variations of the images, suurface
specularity and
a
camera settings.
s
Ofteen the imagess are
exposed withh the illuminaation at imaginng time but itt may
need to be replaced
r
by illlumination consistent withh the
rendering pooint of view and the refleectance propeerties
(BRDF) of the object (Lensch et al., 2003). High
mages might also
a
be acquired to
dynamic range (HDR) im
recover all sccene details annd illuminatioon (Reinhard et
e al.,
2005) while colour discoontinuities annd aliasing efffects
must be remooved.
3.1.1
10 OTHER IMAGE-BAS
I
SED TECHN
NIQUES
too
The most
w
well-known
technique similar
phottogrammetry is computeer vision (Hartley
(
andd
Zisserman, 2001)). Even if accuracy is nott the primaryy
v
approaaches are rettrieving veryy
goall, computer vision
interresting resultss for visualizattion purposes,, object-basedd
naviigation, locatiion-based servvices, robot control,
c
shapee
reco
ognition, augm
mented realitty, annotation
n transfer orr
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
References
ABDEL-AZIZ, Y.I. and KARARA, H.M. 1971. Direct linear
trans-formation from comparator coordinates into
object
space
coordinates
in
close-range
photogrammetry, Proc. of the Symposium on CloseRange Photogrammetry, Falls Church (VA) USA, pp.
1-18.
HIRSCHMULLER, H. 2008. Stereo processing by semiglobal matching and mutual information. IEEE Trans.
Patt. Anal. Mach. Intell., Vol. 30, pp. 328-341.
72
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
3.2.1 INTRODUCTION
According to the UVS (Unmanned Vehicle System)
International definition, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) is a generic aircraft design to operate with no
human pilot onboard (http://www.uvs-international.org/).
The simple term UAV is used commonly in the
Geomatics community, but also other terms like Drone,
Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV), Remotely Operated
Aircraft (ROA), Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV), Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV), Small UAV (SUAV),
Low Altitude Deep Penetration (LADP) UAV, Low Altitude Long Endurance (LALE) UAV, Medium Altitude
Long Endurance (MALE) UAV, Remote Controlled (RC)
Helicopter and Model Helicopter are often used,
according to their propulsion system, altitude/endurance
and the level of automation in the flight execution. The
term UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) comprehends the
whole system composed by the aerial vehicle/platform
(UAV) and the Ground Control Station (GCS). [Sanna
and Pralio, 2005] defines UAVs as Uninhabited Air
Vehicles while [Von Blyenburg, 1999] defines UAVs as
uninhabited and reusable motorized aerial vehicles.
Figure 1. Available Geomatics techniques, sensors and platforms for 3D recording purposes,
according to the scene dimensions and complexity
Tactical UAVs which include micro, mini, close-, short, medium-range, medium-range endurance, low altitude
deep penetration, low altitude long endurance, medium
altitude long endurance systems. The mass varies from
few kg up to 1,000 kg, the range from few km up to
500 km, the flight altitude from few hundreds meter to
5 km and the endurance from some minutes to 2-3
days.
74
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Table 1. Evaluation of some UAV platforms employed for Geomatics applications, according to the literature
and the authors experience. The evaluation is from 1 (low) to 5 (high)
Fixed Wing
Rotary wings
Kite /
Balloon
electric
ICE engine
electric
ICE engine
Payload
Wind resistance
Minimum speed
Flying autonomy
Portability
Landing distance
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Figure 3. Different modalities of the flight execution delivering different image blocks quality: a) manual mode and
image acquisition with a scheduled interval; b) low-cost navigation system with possible waypoints but irregular
image overlap; c) automated flying and acquisition mode achieved with a high quality navigation system
Figure 4. Orientation results of an aerial block over a flat area of ca 2 km (a). The derived camera poses are shown in
red/green, while color dots are the 3D object points on the ground. The absence of ground constraint (b) can led to a
wrong solution of the computed 3D shape (i.e. ground deformation). The more rigorous approach, based on GCPs
used as observations in the bundle solution (c), deliver the correct 3D shape of the surveyed scene, i.e. a flat terrain
al., 2008; Robertson and Cipolla, 2009). Some free webbased approaches (e.g. Photosynth, 123DCatch, etc.) and
open source solutions (VisualSfM (Wu, 2011) Bundler
(Snavely et al., 2008), etc.) are also available although
generally not reliable and accurate enough in case of
large and complex image blocks with variable baselines
and image scale. The employed bundle adjustment
algorithm must be reliable, able to handle possible
outliers and provide statistical outputs to validate the
results. The collected GNSS/INS data, if available, can
help for the automated tie point extraction and can allow
the direct geo-referencing of the captured images. In
applications with low metric quality requirements, e.g.
for fast data acquisition and mapping during emergency
response, the accuracy of direct GNSS/INS observation
can be enough (Pfeifer et al., 2009; Zhou, 2009).
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Y
d
e
Figure 5. Integration off terrestrial im
mages (a) withh oblique (b) and
a vertical (c)) UAV acquissitions for the surveying
and moodeling of the complex Nepptune temple in Paestum, Itaaly. The integgrated adjustm
ment for the derivation
off the camera poses of all thee images (d, e)) in a unique reference
r
systeem
a
modelingg
geollogical studiess and monitooring, urban area
and monitoring, emergency asssessment and
d so on. Thee
typiccal required products aare dense point
p
clouds,,
poly
ygonal modelss or orthoimaages which are
a afterwardss
used
d for mappinng, volume ccomputation, displacementt
anallyses, visualizzation, city m
modeling, map
p generation,,
etc.. In the folloowing sectionns an overviiew of somee
appllications is givven and the aachieved resullts are shown..
The data presentted in the folllowing case studies weree
acqu
uired by the authors
a
or by some projectt partners andd
they
y were processed by the authors usin
ng the Aperoo
(Pierrrot-Deseillignny and Clerry, 2011) an
nd Mic-Macc
(Pierrrot-Deseillignny and Paparroditis, 2006)) open-sourcee
toolss customized for specific U
UAV applicatio
ons.
3D RECORDING
G AND MODELLING IN ARCHAEO
OLOGY AND CULTURAL
U
HERITA
AGE
c
d
e
Figgure 6. A mosaaic view of thhe excavation area
a in Pava (Siena, Italy) surveyed
s
withh UAV imagess for
voluume excavatioon computatioon and GIS appplications (a). The derived DSM shown as shaded (b) and
textuured mode (c) and the produuced ortho-im
mage (d) (Remo
ondino et al., 2011). If mullti-temporal im
mages
are available, DSM differences cann be computed
d for volume exaction
e
estim
mation (e)
MD4-1000 Microdrone
M
syystem, entirelly of carbon fibre
which can carry up to 1,0 kg insttruments withh an
endurance loonger than 45 minutes. Forr the nadir im
mages,
the UAV mounted
m
an Olympus E-P1
E
camera (12
Megapixels, 4.3 m pixell size) with 177 mm focal leength
while for thhe oblique im
mages it was used an Olym
mpus
XZ-1 (10 Megapixels, 2 m
pixel size)) with 6 mm focal
length. For both
b
flights, thhe average GS
SD of the imagges is
ca 3 cm. Thhe auto-pilot system
s
alloweed to perform
m two
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Y
d
e
Figure 7. A mosaic ovver an urban arrea in Bandunng, Indonesia (a).
( Visualizattion of the bunndle adjustmeent results
(b) of
o the large UA
AV block (ca 270 images) and
a a close view of the prodduced DSM oover the urban area,
show
wn as point clloud (c, d) and
d shaded modde (e)
6b, c)
c were used within
w
the Pavvas GIS to prroduce vectorr
layers, ortho-imagges (Fig. 6d) and to check the advancess
in th
he excavation or the excavaation volumes (Fig. 6e).
Urb
ban areas
An UAV platforrm can be ussed to survey
y small urbann
areaas, when nattional regulattion allows doing
d
it, forr
carto
ographic, mappping and caddastral appliccations. Thesee
imag
ges have veryy high resolutiion if flights are
a performedd
at 10
00-200 m heigght over the gground. Very high overlapss
are recommended
r
d in order to rreduce occlud
ded areas andd
achiieve more com
mplete and ddetailed DSM.. A sufficientt
num
mber of GCPs is mandatoryy in order to geo-referencee
the processed
p
im
mages within tthe bundle ad
djustment andd
deriv
ve point cloudds: the number of GCPs varries accordingg
to th
he image blocck dimensionss and the com
mplexity of thee
surv
veyed area. The
T quality off achieved po
oint clouds iss
usuaally very highh (up to few centimetres) and this dataa
can thus be ussed for furthher analysis and featuree
extraaction.
In Fig.
F 7, a densee urban area in Bandung (Indonesia)
(
iss
show
wn: the area was
w surveyed w
with an electrric fixed-wingg
81
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
References
ANAI, T.; SASAKI, T.; OSARAGI, K.; YAMADA, M.;
OTOMO, F.; OTANI, H. 2012. Automatic exterior
orientation
procedure
for
low-cost
UAV
photogrammetry using video image tracking
technique and GPS information. Int. Archives of
Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial
Information Sciences, Vol. 39(7).
FRANCESCHINI, N.; RUFFIER, F.; SERRES, J. 2007. A bioinspired flying robot sheds light on insect piloting
abilities. Current Biology, 17(4): 329-335.
FURUKAWA, Y.; PONCE, J. 2010.Accurate, dense and
robust multiview stereopsis. IEEE Transactions on
Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI),
32 (8): 1362-1376.
GERKE, S.; MORIN, K.; DOWNEY, M.; BOEHRER, N.;
FUCHS, T. 2010. Semi-global matching: an alternative
to LiDAR for DSM generation? Int. Archives of
Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial
Information Sciences, Vol. 38(1), on CD-ROM.
HIRSCHMLLER, H. 2008. Stereo processing by SemiGlobal Matching and Mutual Information. IEEE
Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine
Intelligence, 30 (2): 328-341.
PHOTOGRAMMETRY
Herbert
85
STEMPFHUBER, W.; BUCHHOLZ, M. 2011. A precise, lowcost RTK GNSS system for UAV applications. Int.
Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and
Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. 38 (1/C22).
WANG, W.Q.; PENG, Q.C.; CAI, J.Y. 2009. Waveformdiversity-based millimeter-wave UAV SAR remote
sensing. Transactions on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing 47(3): 691-700.
Web links
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/aerospace/uas/
http://www.uvs-international.org/
86
4
REMOTE SENSING
REMOTE SENSING
4.1.1 INTRODUCTION
According to Clark et al., (1998):
Landscape archaeology is a geographical approach
whereby a region is investigated in an integrated
manner, studying sites and artefacts not in isolation,
but as aspects of living societies that once occupied
the landscape
89
1
A definition of satellite photogrammetry may be found in Slama et al.,
(1980): Satellite photogrammetry, as distinguished from conventional
aerial photogrammetry, consists of the theory and techniques of
photogrammetry where the sensor is carried on a spacecraft and the
sensors output (usually in the form of images) is utilised for the
determination of coordinates on the moon or planet being investigated.
From this definition, it is obvious that people were not openly aware of
the military use of same techniques towards our planet, Earth.
90
REMOTE SENSING
2
http://www.asprs.org/Satellite-Information/Guide-to-Land-ImagingSatellites.html / (last accessed: December 2011).
91
Figure 3. The left part displays the spectral resolution of different satellites. The right part illustrates the spectral
signature from the point of view of hyperspectral, multispectral and panchromatic images respectively
Figure 4. Illustration of the different spatial coverage or swath width (nominal values in parenthesis) (reproduced from
http://www.asprs.org/a/news/satellites/ASPRS_ DATABASE_021208.pdf Last accessed December 2011)
92
REMOTE SENSING
row
column
X ... Y 3
X ... Y 3
X iY j Z k
X iY j Z k
X iY j Z k
i 0 j 0 k 0
n1 n 2 n 3
i 0 j 0 k 0
ijk
ijk
m1 m 2 m 3
p3( X , Y , Z )
y
p 4( X , Y , Z )
(1 Z Y
(1 Z Y
p1( X , Y , Z )
x
p 2( X , Y , Z )
c
i 0 j 0 k 0
n1 n 2 n 3
ijk
d
i 0 j 0 k 0
ijk
X iY j Z k
93
Relation
Platform-related
Description of error
Platform movement (altitude, velocity)
Platform attitude (roll, pitch, yaw)
Viewing angles
Acquisition system
Sensor-related
Instrument-related
Area of interest
Time-variations or drift
Clock synchronicity
Atmosphere-related
Earth-related
Map-related
3
Chen and Lee (1992) use the term RPCs (Registration Control Points)
that is more precise. However, to avoid confusion, this term will not be
used.
REMOTE SENSING
95
Konecny (2003) defines remote sensing and photogrammetry according to their object of study:
Figure 5. Classical and modern geospatial information system (reproduced from Konecny, 2003)
96
REMOTE SENSING
4.1.9 SUMMARY
4.1.10 EXERCISES
ABSTRACT
The era of satellites for earth observation started in 1960s
for meteorological and military applications. The
multispectral concept helped earth observation to takeoff in other applications with Landsat in 1972. Since
then, a huge archive of image data has become available
for almost every place on Earth, and satellite imagery was
utilised in many different specialties. Today, more and
more satellites are launched with improved characteristics
and special properties according to the application market
targeted. However, there is no satellite tailor-made for
archaeological applications. This chapter will provide an
insight on the existing and future satellite image data
along with their properties, and how can the archaeologist
make the best use of them.
References
97
FRASER, C.S. and HANLEY, H.B. 2003. Bias compensation in rational functions for IKONOS satellite
imagery, Photogrammetric engineering and remote
sensing, vol. 69, No. 1, January 2003, pp. 53-57.
RICHELSON, J.T. 1999. U.S. Satellite Imagery, 19601999, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing
Book No 13. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
NSAEBB/NSAEBB13/ (Last accessed: December
2011).
98
5
GIS
GIS
5.1.1.1 Geodata
Figure 1. Example of relational model: two tables (here: countries and cities) are depicted schematically (top).
Attribute names and data types are listed for each table. The black arrow represents the relation existing
between them. Data contained in the two tables is presented in the bottom left, and the result of a possible
query in the bottom right. The link between the two tables is realized by means of the country_id columns
102
GIS
Figure 2. Raster (top) and vector (bottom) representation of point, lines and polygon features in a GIS
same planimetric position: one for the cave floor, one for
the cave ceiling, and finally one for the mountain surface
on top of the cave.
GIS
105
Figure 3. Qualitative examples of different interpolation algorithms starting from the same input (left). Surface
interpolated using an Inverse Distance Weighting interpolator (center) and a Spline with Tension interpolator (right)
Geostatistical interpolation methods use both mathematical and statistical methods, in order to predict values
and their probabilistic estimates of the quality of the
interpolation. These estimates are obtained using the
spatial autocorrelation among data points.
106
GIS
Figure 4. Examples of network analyses. A road network (upper left), in which 5 possible destinations are represented
by black dots, can be represented according to the average speed typical for each roadway (upper right), where
decreasing average speeds are represented in dark green, light green, yellow, orange and red, respectively.
The shortest route, considering distance, connecting all 5 destinations is depicted in blue (bottom left),
while the shortest route, in terms of time, is depicted in violet (bottom right).
These examples are based on the Spearfish dataset available for Grass GIS
3D RECORDING
G AND MODELLING IN ARCHAEO
OLOGY AND CULTURAL
U
HERITA
AGE
Serv
vices (WMS),, Web Featuree Services (W
WFS) or Webb
Cov
verage Servicees (WCS). Tooday the speccifications aree
defin
ned and maintained
m
byy the Open
n Geospatiall
Con
nsortium (O
OGC), an international standardss
orgaanisation, which
w
encourrages develo
opment andd
impllementation of
o open standaards for geosp
patial contentt
and services, GIS data processiing and data sh
haring.
A Web
W Map Service is implem
mented whenev
ver geodata iss
to bee delivered (sserved) in form
m of georeferrenced imagess
overr the Interneet. These imaages correspo
ond to mapss
geneerated by a map server, which retriev
ves data, forr
exam
mple, from a spatial databbase and send
d them to thee
clien
nt application for visualisattion. During pan
p and zoom
m
operrations, WMS
S requests ggenerate map
p images byy
meaans of a varietyy of raster renndering processses, the mostt
com
mmon being geenerally calledd resampling, interpolation,,
and down-sampliing. WMS is a widely su
upported openn
standard for mapss and GIS datta accessed viia the Internett
and loaded into client side G
GIS software,, however itss
limittation consistss mainly in thhe impossibilitty for the userr
to ed
dit or spatiallyy analyse the sserved imagess.
In case
c
of a Webb Feature Seervice, geodatta are insteadd
serv
ved encoded in the XML
L-based GML
L (Geographyy
Marrkup Languagge) format (but other formats likee
shap
pefiles can bee employed), which allowss every singlee
geog
graphic featuure to be trransmitted in
ndependently,,
querried and analyysed. Essentially, GML passses data forthh
and back betweeen a Web Feature Server and a client..
Whiile a WMS seerves a static m
map image aas is, a WFS
S
can be
b thought to serve the souurce code off the map.
In general, web
w mapping services
s
facilittate distributioon of
generated maps
m
throughh web browssers, followinng a
classical clieent-server struucture, accordding to whichh the
user perform
ms a query onn certain dataa (spatial or nonspatial) from
m his client application, running geneerally
within the web browser, and
a the resultss are providedd by a
remote serveer to the webb browser (geenerally) over the
Internet. Thiis allows to explore data dynamicallyy and
interactively,, as well as to combine different datta to
create new maps
m
accordingg to certain crriteria given by
b the
user.
A Web
W Coveragge Service is implemented
d whenever a
web-based retrievval of coveraages is needeed. The term
m
coveerage refers to any digittal geospatiall informationn
representing sppace- or tiime-varying phenomena..
Therrefore, similarrly to WMS aand WFS serv
vice instances,,
a WCS
W
allows cllients to queryy portions rem
motely storedd
geod
data accordingg to certain criteria. However, there aree
som
me differencess to WMS aand WFS. Un
nlike static
GIS
Figure 6. Example of Web-based geodata publication in 3D: by means of virtual globes, as in Google Earth,
or in the case of the Heidelberg 3D project (http://www.heidelberg-3d.de)
Today, georeferenced data can be visualised using socalled virtual globes: such technologies permit a threedimensional exploration of the Earths surface, on top of
which satellite imagery, digital elevation models, as well
as other geographic raster and vector data (e.g. textured
3D models of buildings and landmarks) are mapped by
direct streaming through the Internet.
Several virtual globes exist, both as closed and open
source solutions. The most popular closed source
technologies are namely Google Earth (Figure 6, left) and
Microsoft Bing Maps 3D. These platforms have made 3D
visualisation of geographical features known and
accessible to everyone, however, in the open source
community, similar solutions exist, e.g. NASA World
Wind, ossimPlanet, and osgEarth.
109
References
BRASSEL, K.E.; WEIBEL, R. 1988. A Review and
Framework of Automated Map Generalization. Int.
Journal of Geographical Information Systems, 2(3),
pp. 229-244.
110
6
VIRTUAL REALITY AND
CYBERARCHAEOLOGY
113
If in the 80s and 90s the term Virtual Reality was very
common and identifying a very specific, advanced and
new digital technology (Forte 2000), now it is more
appropriate to classify this domain as virtual realities
where the interaction is the core, but the modalities of
engagement, embodiment, interfaces and devices are
diverse and multitasking. According to a retrospective
view, VR could be considered a missing revolution, in
the sense that it didnt have a relevant social and
technological impact with very few outstanding results in
the last two decades. Internet for example was a big
revolution, not VR.
Nowadays an interesting example is represented by 3D
games: very sophisticated virtual environments, with a
superb graphic capacity to engage players in a continuous
participatory and co-evolving interaction, collaborative
communication and digital storytelling. They can expand
the digital territory they occupy according to participatory
interaction. The ultimate scope of a game in fact is the
creation of a digital land to explore and settle. In the
game context the role of simple users is transformed in
active players, that is the players themselves contribute
to the construction and evolution of the game. These new
trends of co-active embodiment and engagement have
radically changed the traditional definition of virtual
environment/virtual reality as a visualization space
peopled by predetermined models and actions. The game
is an open collaborative performance with specific goals,
roles, communication styles and progressive levels of
engagement. The narrative of the game can produce the
highest level of engagement, a gamification of the user
(Kapp 2012).
In addition, every model was static and without any interrelation with human activities or social behaviors. For
example, in the 90s the virtual models of Rome and
Pompei were just architectural empty spaces without any
trace of human activity (Cameron and Kenderdine 2010):
a sort of 3D temporal snapshot of the main buildings of
the city. At that time of digital reconstructions there was
scarce attention to reproduce dynamic models and to
include human life or activities in virtual worlds. Virtual
world were magnificent, realistic and empty digital
spaces.
It is interesting to point out that all these reconstructions
were made by collecting and translating archaeological
data from analogue format to digital: for example from
115
116
the past cannot be reconstructed but simulated. Cyberarchaeology is aimed at the simulation of the past and not
on its reconstruction: the simulation is the core of the
process. For this it is better to think about potential past,
a co-evolving subject in the human evolution generated
by cyber-interaction between worlds (Forte 2010). In
short cyberarchaeology studies the process of simulation
of the past and its relations with the present societies. Is
this a revolutionary change in theoretical archaeology?
Perhaps a new methodological phase after processualism
and post-processualism? Is cyber archaeology a change in
methodology, a change in paradigm, or a reflection of a
broader change? (Zubrow 2010). According to Ezra
Zubrow (Zubrow 2011) both processual and post
processual are now integrated into something new. Cyber
archaeology bridges the gap between scientific and
interpretational archaeology for it provides testable in
the sense of adequacy material representations of either
interpretations
or
scientific
hypotheses
or
discoveries. (Zubrow 2010). And further: if postprocessual archaeology will continue to exist it will exist
through cyber archaeology. It is in cyberarchaeology
where the interesting issues of cognition, memory,
individual difference, education etc are actually being
researched and actually being used. (Zubrow 2011).
117
3D RECORDING
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Figure 3. 3D-D
Digging Projecct at atalhyk
can be co
Teleeimmersive Archaeology
A
onsidered ann
advaanced evolutioon of 3D visuualization and simulation inn
arch
haeology: not a simple visuualization tooll but a virtuall
collaaborative spacce for researcch, teaching and
a educationn
(fig. 3); a netwoork of virtual labs and mo
odels able too
t
virtuaal knowledgee. It is namedd
geneerate and to transmit
Telleimmersive because can involve the use of stereoo
cam
meras or kinectt haptic system
ms in order to represent thee
userrs as human avatars and tto visualize 3D
3 models inn
imm
mersive remotee participatorry sessions. Teleimmersive
T
e
Arch
haeology triess to integrate different dataa sources andd
prov
vide real-tim
me interactiion tools for remotee
collaaboration of geographically
g
y distributed sccholars.
I wo
ould consider Teleimmersivve a simulatio
on tool for thee
interrpretation andd communicattion of archaeological data..
The tools alloow for datta decimatio
on, analysis,,
visu
ualization, archhiving, and coontextualization of any 3D
D
dbasse in a collaborative space. This kind of activity cann
startt in the field during the exxcavation and can continuee
in laab in the phasse of post-proocessing and interpretation.
i
.
Field
dwork archaeeologists for eexample could
d discuss withh
expeerts of pottery,
p
geooarchaeologistts, physicall
anth
hropologists, conservation
c
experts, geop
physicists andd
so on: the interpreetation of an oobject, a site or
o a landscapee
is allways the ressult of a workk in team. At
A the end thee
Figuure 4. Teleimm
mersion System
m in Archaeollogy (UC Merrced, UC Berkkeley)
3D RECORDING
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dalone it cann
interrface and conntent (fig. 3, 6). As stand
elaborate all the models in 33D including
g GIS layers,,
metaadata and dbases (fig. 7). The digital workflow off
TeleeArch is able to integrate aall the data in
n 3D from thee
field
dwork to the collaborative
c
system with the followingg
sequ
uence:
3 format byy
Arrchaeological data can be recorded in 3D
lasser scannerss, digital phhotogrammetrry, computerr
vision, image modeling.
m
he 3D models have to be deecimated and optimized forr
Th
real time simulaations.
D models havee to be exported in obj form
mat.
3D
hey are optiimized in M
Meshlab and uploaded too
Th
TeeleArch.
Figuure 6. A Teleim
mmersive worrk session
6.1.3
3.4 3D Interaaction
TeleeArch supporrts different kinds of 3D
D interaction::
hum
man avatars (11st person intteraction), 3rd
d person andd
standalone. In 1stt person operaability the useer can interactt
like in the real world
w
within thhe space mapp
ped by stereoo
cam
meras: he/she operates
o
like a human avaatar since thee
systeem reconstruccts the body m
motion in real time (figs. 5-6). In
I this case users
u
can seee each other using naturall
interrfaces and boody languagee. In 3rd perrson the userr
interracts collaboraatively with ddata and models but withoutt
stereeo cameras. Ultimately TeleArch wo
orks also ass
standalone softw
ware, so thaat the user can interactt
indiv
vidually with models and ddata in stereo vision.
v
Figure
F
9. Clouuds of points bby time of phaase scanner
(Trimble FX) at atalhhyk: buildin
ng 77
3D RECORDING
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b
famouus internationaally due to thee
The site rapidly became
largee size and dennse occupationn of the settleement, as welll
as th
he spectaculaar wall paintinngs and otherr art that wass
unco
overed insidee the housess. Another distinguishing
d
g
featu
ure of atalhyk was the nature of thee houses: theyy
are complex
c
units involving riitual and the interpretationn
of activities in the same sspace. In paarticular, thee
diachronic architeectural develoopment of th
he site is stilll
very
y controversial and it needss more studiess and analysess
in reelation with thhe landscape aand the symbo
olic, ritual andd
social use of the buildings.
b
Sincce February 2009, the site is inscrribed in thee
tentaative list of UNESCO W
World Heritag
ge Sites. Thee
speccific critical conditions oof the housess (mud-brickk
dweellings, earth floors,
f
artifactts, etc.) and th
he difficultiess
to preserve
p
all thhe structures in situ urge to documentt
digittally all thee structures before they collapse orr
disap
ppear.
6.1.4
4.3 Research
h Questions
The project can open new peerspectives att the level off
meth
hodology of research in archaeology, generating a
more advanced digital
d
pipelinne from the fiieldwork to a
more holistic innterpretation process in the use off
integ
grated spatiall datasets inn three dimen
nsions. Moree
speccifically, it shhould be ablee to define a new digitall
herm
meneutics of the archaeollogical researrch and new
w
research questions. One of the key points off the project inn
fact is the miggration of 3D
D data from
m the digitall
docu
umentation inn the field to a simulation environmentt
and one day wiith an installlation in a public
p
visitorr
centter.
In fact,
f
in this case
c
the 3D ddocumentation
n of the new
w
excaavation areas could be linkked and georefferenced withh
layers and datasetts recorded inn the past, reco
onstructing att
the end
e a compleete 3D map of the site and
d of the entiree
strattigraphic conttext (figs. 12-13). In that way,
w
it will bee
posssible to redessign the relatiive chronolog
gy of the sitee
and the severall phases of settlement. In fact thee
reco
onstruction of the Neolithicc site in thoussands years off
conttinuous occuppation and usee is still very
y difficult andd
conttroversial. In addition, the 3D recontextualization off
artiffacts in the viirtual excavattion is otherw
wise importantt
for the interpretaation of diffeerent areas off any singless
housse or for studying ppossible sociial activitiess
perp
petuated withinn the site.
Figure 12. 3D
3 layers and microstratigraaphy in the telleimmersive system
s
(accuraacy < 1 mm):
midden laayers at atalhhyk. This area
a was recorrded by optical scanner (Minnolta 910)
Fig
gure 15. Buildding 77 after thhe removal off the painted
calfs head. The
T 3D recordiing by image modeling
allows too reconstruct thhe entire sequ
uence
of deccoration (by ddifferent layerss)
Figure 13. Virtual straatigraphy of thhe building 899,
atalhyk: all thee layers recordded by time
off phase laser scanner
s
(Trimbble FX)
Table 1. A comparison, based on our experience, between TOF scanner and Computer Vision methods
125
6.1.5 CONCLUSIONS
CHAMPION, E. 2011. Playing with the past. Humancomputer interaction series. London; New York,
Springer: 1 online resource (xxi, 214 p.).
127
Univ
versity of Paadova, fundedd by MIUR and Venetoo
Region. It is parrt of a wider project who
ose goal is too
stud
dy, reconstructt, promote thee thermal land
dscape typicall
of the
t
Euganeaan Hills, aroound Monteg
grotto Termee
(Pad
dova, Italy: www.aquaeppatavinae.it). The knownn
elem
ments of this territory
t
are diifferent and sp
pread along a
widee area: there is
i only a prim
mary tourist archaeological
a
l
site; some are stiill under excaavation and cannot
c
yet bee
see, while otherss are recognnizable only through
t
littlee
scatttered evidencees identified tthrough archaaeological andd
geollogical surveyys, historical sstudies and reemote sensingg
of th
he whole areaa. The project is directed mainly
m
to non-expeert users. An on line interaactive application has beenn
set up
u and integraated in the m
main website. It
I was used a
plug
g-in approachh to enable ffull integratio
on inside thee
brow
wser of the 3D interactionn with the com
mplex sceness
(DE
EM, geoimagees, 3D modelss obtained wiith RBM andd
IBM
M technique and
a
with nott-reality baseed modelling,,
vegeetation, wateer effects, eetc.). It waas used thee
OpeenSceneGraphh library (www
w.openscenegraph.org) andd
the OSG4WEB
O
p
project
[Faninii et al., 2011, Calori et al.,,
2009
9]. The user interface waas improved, such as thee
interraction of thhe plug-in: tthe navigatio
on system iss
personalized in accordance wiith the type of exploration,,
the scale of the landscape,
l
thee visualisation
n device (fly,,
walk
k; touch-screen, natural iinteraction); specific userr
interrface was deeveloped throough which the
t
user cann
uplo
oad different models (innterpreted simulated
reco
onstructed) onn the landsccape, in som
me cases ass
transsparent volum
mes above the original 3D archaeological
a
l
remaains; it was addded a loadingg system for in
nformation inn
3D and
a a dynamic real time syystem to add plants
p
directlyy
on the
t scene, useeful in case of gardens reeconstruction..
Alth
hough OSG4W
WEB is a sstill ongoing open sourcee
project, it is stilll a good soluution, at leastt in the openn
sourrce panorama, to create ann on line virttual museum,,
mad
de of complexx scenes, based on geographical datasetss
and complex intteractions. Nevertheless, a not-plug-inn
3D RECORDING
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U
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AGE
blet. An exam
mple is Materra: tales of a city
c
[Pietronii
a tab
et all., 2011], a prroject developped by CNR in
n cooperationn
with
h Basilicata Reegion. The prroject is aimed
d at creating a
digittal platform able
a
to help ttourists and visitors
v
beforee
and during the visit
v
of Mateera. The culttural content,,
audiio-visuals, texxts, 3d modeels, including
g a completee
reco
onstruction off the landscaape and one of the cityy
(Maatera) in nine historical perriods, from Pliocene up too
now
wadays (fig. 3).
3 The resuult is an app
plication thatt
integ
grates differeent digital asssets, used an
nd combinedd
follo
owing a narraative approachh: from a mo
ore traditionall
multtimedia approoach to a 3D rreal time navig
gation system
m
for I-Pad.
I
Figurre 2. Aquae Paatavinae VR presented
p
at
Archeeovirtual 20111 (www.archeovirtual.it):
n
natural
interacttion through thhe web
6.2.2
2.4 Apa (20099-2011)
[Nott interactive virtual
v
museum
m. Categories: history, not-interractive, narraative, permaneent, immersivee, sustainable,
not-d
distributed (on site), edutaiinment]
Figure 3.
3 3D reconstrruction parts of
o the project Matera:
s
inn
collaaboration in inclusive envvironments; simulation
real time environnments; 3D coollaborative environments;
e
;
multti user or serioous games, muulti-user virtual museums.
Refeerences
ANTTINUCCI, F. 2007.
2
The virrtual museum
m. In: Virtuall
Museums
M
andd archaeologyy. The contrib
bution of thee
Italian
I
Nationnal Research Council, Ed.. P. Moscati,,
Archeologia
A
e Calcolatori, S
Suppl. 1, 2007
7: 79-86.
CALLORI, Luigi; CAMPORESI, Carlo; PESC
CARIN, Sofia
a
2009.
2
Virtuaal Rome: a FO
OSS approach
h to Web3D,,
Proceedings
P
o the 14th Innternational Conference
of
C
onn
3D
3 Web Techhnology (Web33D 09), 2009.
CAR
RROZZINO, M.. and BERGAM
MASCO, M. 2010.
2
Beyondd
virtual
v
museuums: Experieencing immeersive virtuall
reality
r
in real museums. In: Journal of Culturall
Heritage,
H
11: 452-458.
4
6.2.3 FUTU
URE PERSPE
ECTIVES
FOR
RTE, M.; PES
SCARIN, S.; PIETRONI, E..; RUFA, C.;;
BACILIERI, D.; BORRA, D. 22003. The mulltimedia room
m
of
o the scroveggni chapel: a virtual heritage project, inn
Enter
GUID
DAZZOLI, A.; CALORI, L.; DELLI PONTI, F.;;
DIAMANTI, T..; IMBODEN, S
S.; MAURI, A.;
A NEGRI, A.;;
BOETTO COHEN, G.; PESC
CARIN, S.; LIGUORI
I
, M.C..
2011.
2
Apa the Etruscann and 2700 years of 3D
D
Bologna
B
histoory, SIGGR
RAPH Asia 2011
2
Posterss
Hong
H
Kong, China,
C
2011.
Interesting perspectives
p
for the futurre of the doomain
include: details
d
enhaancement annd support to
reconstructioon based on Artificial Inttelligence, Neural
N
Networks, Genetic Artt and Proceedural Modeeling;
Web
bGL 2009. Khronos
K
Grouup. WebGL OpenGL ES
S
2.0
2 for the Weeb. http://www
w.khronos.org
g/webgl.
133
7
CASE STUDIES
CASE STUDIES
7.1.1 INTRODUCTION
Homo sapiens is an animal symbolicum (Cassirer 1953:
44). Sculpture is a constitutive form of human artistic
expression. Indeed, the earliest preserved examples of
modern human symbol-making are not (as one might
think) the famous 2D cave paintings from Chauvet in
France (ca. 33,000 BP) but 3D sculpted statuettes from
the Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm, Germany dating to ca.
40,000 BP (Conard 2009). Practitioners of digital
archaeology must thus be prepared to handle works of
sculpture, which constitute an important class of
archaeological monument and are often essential
components of virtual environments such as temples,
houses, and settlements. The challenges of doing so relate
to two typical characteristics of ancient sculpture: its
form tends to be organic; its condition usually leaves
something to be desired.
137
See www.digitalsculpture.org.
138
CASE STUDIES
7.1.5 RESTORATION
16
18
http://usa.autodesk.com/maya.
www.blender.org/.
20
See http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/; Wikipedia s.v. MeshLab at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshlab (seen February 1, 2012).
19
139
See www.digitalsculpture.org/pan-nymph/index.html.
For the state and three restoration models, see www.digitalsculpture.
org/caligula/index.html.
23
www.pixologic.com/zbrush/.
24
www.pixologic.com/sculptris/.
25
Meshlab Paint Edition may be downloaded at: www.digitalsculpture.
org/tools.html.
26
I thank Matthew Brennan, lead 3D technician in The Virtual World
Heritage Laboratory, for his input to this paragraph.
27
http://usa.autodesk.com/3ds-max/.
22
140
CASE STUDIES
Appendix I: 28
A COMPARISON OF CASTS VS.
ORIGINALS29
The purpose of this comparison made using the marble
statue and cast (figure 2) Alexander in the Dresden
State Museums is to ascertain two things: (1) which
material is more responsive to 3D digital data capture,
marble or the plaster used in the cast; (2) how closely
does a first-generation plaster cast of a statue correspond
to original marble sculpture? In order to make this
comparison, the statues were first scanned with a FARO
ScanArm. The resulting point clouds were processed with
Polyworks and polygonal models were made.
As will be seen, these two questions are related since the
material qualities of marble turn out to be less receptive
to digitization than are those of plaster or silicon. This
can be easily seen in figure 3. Whereas the digital model
of the plaster cast renders the smooth surface of the
marble, that of the marble has a surface marred by bumps
that do not correspond to any true feature of the original.
Marble is composed primarily of calcite (a crystalline
form of calcium carbonate, CaCO3).30 As Beraldin, Godin
et al., 2001: 1 showed:
www.londoncharter.org/.
I thank David Koller for his collaboration in writing the Appendix.
30
Wikipedia, s.v. Marble sculpture, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Marble_sculpture (seen May 1, 2010).
29
31
141
See www.plastercastcollection.org/de/database.php?d=lire&id=172.
www.digitalsculpture.org/casts/felice/
34
I thank Jason Page of Direct Dimensions, Inc. for running this test and
producing the images seen in figures 4 and 5.
33
CASE STUDIES
Appendix II:
DIGITAL APPLICATIONS IN
ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL
HERITAGE
Bibliography
BERALDIN, J.-A.; GODIN, G. et al. 2001. An Assessment
of Laser Range Measurement on Marble Surfaces,
5th Conference on Optical 3D Measurement
Techniques, October 1-4, 2001, Vienna Austria. 8 pp.;
graphics.stanford.edu/papers/marbleassessment/marbr
e_gg_final2e_coul.pdf.
144
CASE STUDIES
7.2.1 INTRODUCTION
Constant advances in the field of surveying, computing
and digital-content delivery are reshaping the approach
Cultural Heritage can be virtually accessed: thanks to
such new methodologies, not only researchers, but also
new potential users like students and tourists, are given
the chance to use a wide array of new tools to obtain
information and perform analyses with regards to art
history, architecture and archaeology.
One useful possibility is offered by 3D computersimulated models, representing for example both the
present and the hypothetical status of a structure. Such
models can be linked to heterogeneous information and
queried by means of (sometimes Web-enabled) GIS tools.
In such a way, relationships between structures, objects
and artefacts can be explored and the changes over space
and time can be analysed.
CASE STUDIES
Figure 1. Different levels of detail (LoD) in the Query Arch 3D tool. Clockwise from top-left: LoD1 of a temple
with prismatic geometries, LoD2 with more detailed models (only exterior walls), LoD3 with interior walls/rooms
and some simplified reality-based elements, LoD4 with high-resolution reality-based models
3D RECORDING
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Figure 2.
2 Different viisualization models
m
in QuerryArch3D: aerrial view (a, b),
b walkthrouggh mode (b) an
nd detail
view
w (d). Data cann be queried according
a
to atttributes (a) orr by clicking on
o the chosen geometry (b, c, d).
Thee amount of innformation shhown is dependding on the Lo
oD: in (b), atttributes about the whole tem
mple
are shown, in (c) only a subpart
s
of thee temple, and the
t correspondding attributess, are shown
geometries, too:
t
if a queryy on an attribuute table is caarried
out for a certtain roof, not only
o
the linked attributes shhould
be retrieved, but also the corresponding
c
g geometric obbject.
This operattion requiress however to structure the
geometric models
m
in coompliance wiith the hieraarchy.
Some manuaal data editinng was thereefore necessarry to
segment the geometric moodels into subbparts accordinng to
the hierarchhical schemees. Upon coompletion off the
segmentationn, all geomettric models were
w
alignedd and
georeferenceed.
7.2.3
3 CONCLUS
SIONS
The continuous development
d
and improvement of new
w
senssors, data captture methodollogies, multi-rresolution 3D
D
representations coontribute signnificantly to the
t growth off
research in the Cultural
C
Heriitage field. Nowadays
N
3D
D
mod
dels of large and
a complex ssites can be prroduced usingg
diffeerent methodoologies that ccan be combin
ned to derivee
multti-resolution data
d
and diffe
ferent levels of
o detail. Thee
3D digital
d
world is
i thus providiing opportunitties to changee
the way
w knowledgge and inform
mation can be accessed andd
Regarding the
t
navigatioon in the 3D environm
ment,
three modells are availaable: a) an aerial view over
the whole arrchaeological site, where only
o
LoD1 moodels
148
CASE STUDIES
Acknowledgments
References
AGUGIARO, G.; REMONDINO, F.; GIRARDI, G.; VON
SCHWERIN, J.; RICHARDS-RISSETTO, H.; DE AMICIS,
R. 2011. QUERYARCH3D: Querying and visualizing
3D models of a Maya archaeological site in a webbased interface. Geoinformatics FCE CTU Journal,
vol. 6, pp. 10-17, Prague, Czech Republic. ISSN:
1802-2669.
Web links
[NUBES] http://www.map.archi.fr/nubes/NUBES_
Information_System_at_Architectural_Scale/
Tempus.html
[3DCOFORM] http://www.3d-coform.eu/
[VENUS] http://www.ccrmlabs.com/
[DIGSCO] http://www.digitalsculpture.org/
[QUERYARCH3D] http://mayaarch3d.unm.edu/
index.php
[CITYGML] http://www.citygml.org
[KHRONOS] http://www.khronos.org/
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CASE STUDIES
7.3.1 INTRODUCTION
The exponential evolution of spatial and visual
technologies has deeply impacted archaeology as a
discipline. Technology has always been an important part
of archaeological practices, and its use has contributed to
developing methods and theories for the investigation and
analysis of archaeological sites. Instruments and tools
that are typically used to conduct field activities have
aided archaeologists from the very beginning of this
discipline. The use of these instruments and tools has
been customised over the years to improve the excavation
process.
Figure 1. This image presents an example of a 3D model acquired during an investigation campaign in Uppkra
(Summer 2011). The model has been realised using Agisoft Photoscan and visualised through MeshLab
152
CASE STUDIES
Figure 2. This image shows the three steps performed by the software (i.e., Photoscan and Agisoft) to calculate
the 3D model for the rectangular area excavated in 2011 during the investigation of a Neolithic grave
in Uppkra: (a) camera position calculations, (b) geometry creation, and (c) map projection
CASE STUDIES
Figure 3. This image shows the investigation area that was selected in 2010 to test the efficiency of the Computer
Vision techniques during an archaeological excavation in Uppkra. The upper part of the image presents (A) a model
created during the excavation overlapped with the graphic documentation created during the investigation campaign.
The lower part of the image presents (B) an example of models organised in a temporal sequence
Figure 4. This image shows two models of the excavation that were created at different times during
the investigation campaign. In the first model, (a) the circular ditch is visible only in the Northwest
rectangular area. The second model shows (b) how the results of the archaeological investigation
allowed for the discovery of a ditch that was in the Southeast rectangular area
155
Figure 5. This image shows part of the 3D models that were created
during the excavation of a grave, organised in a temporal sequence
CASE STUDIES
Figure 6. This image shows the integration of the 3D models into the GIS
7.3.5 CONCLUSION
This paper presents the advantages of incorporating threedimensional models into current archaeological recording
systems. The results supported the combination of 3D
files with the current documentation system, as this
approach would represent a more informative tool for the
description of the excavation process. Additionally, the
results of our experiments indicate that the appropriate
integration of 3D models within the time frame of field
activities exponentially increases the perception of the
archaeological relations that characterize the on-going
investigation by providing a 3D temporal reference of the
actions performed on the site.
Abstract
In recent decades, the development of technology that
aids in documenting, analysing and communicating
information regarding archaeological sites has affected
the way that historical information is transmitted and
perceived by the community.
When collecting large 3D datasets, Geographic Information System can be used to select and display the threedimensional files that are associated with similar field
records (i.e., metadata). This operation will automatically
display any artificial 3D environments that were created
based on archaeological contexts belonging to the same
period, but that had been excavated during a different
time frame.
157
References
ALDENDERFER, M. 1996. Introduction. Aldenderfer M.
and Maschner H.D.G. (eds): Antropology, space, and
geographic information system. Oxford University
Press, Oxford, pp. 3-18.
Web links
http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/
http://www.agisoft.ru/
http://www.esri.com/
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CASE STUDIES
7.4.1 INTRODUCTION
This case study uses the work of a doctoral research
project at Bournemouth University from 2009-2011
looking at the use of airborne remote-sensing (ARS)
techniques for analysis of the historic landscape of a
chalk grassland environment. As will be shown the ALS
data made a significant contribution not only to the
number of features identified but also to understanding
the contribution of various airborne sensors. The project
is somewhat a-typical in that it focussed on the technical
aspects of the application of ALS data rather than purely
site prospection but in this case study readers will see
clear links to some of the issues discussed in Chapter 2.
7.4.2 BACKGROUND
The Salisbury Plain Wiltshire, England comprises 39,000
hectares of the rolling chalk outcrops of the Plain and is
owned and managed by the Ministry of Defence as the
largest training area in the UK (Figures 1 and 2). The
archaeological landscapes of this area are remarkable
both for their location between the World Heritage status
prehistoric landscapes of Stonehenge and Avebury and
for the outstanding preservation of their archaeological
features. Purchased by the War Office following the
agricultural depression of the late 19th century, the Plain
is the last area of chalk grassland that remains predominantly unaffected by agricultural intensification. The
Plain is also remarkable for the quality of previous and
ongoing archaeological investigations, which have characterised the nature of the archaeology through aerial,
ground based metric and geophysical survey, providing
an excellent baseline record. The area is generally well
understood with a number of previous archaeological
investigations, including full mapping of the aerial photograph archive by the National Mapping Programme (NMP)
CASE STUDIES
Table 1. Details of ALS visualisation models used for the Everleigh data
Technique
Acronym
Brief Description
Source
Shaded Relief
Model
None used
(Horn 1981)
Slope
None used
(Jones 1998)
Aspect
None used
(Skidmore 1989)
PCA
LRM
(Hesse 2010)
None used
Principal Component
Analysis of Shaded
Relief Models
Local Relief
Modelling
Horizon
Modelling
Feature Transcription
The raster visualisation detailed above were opened in
QGIS 1.7 (Quantum GIS Development Team, 2010) and
archaeological features were transcribed to a shapefile.
Features were recorded to NMP standards however for
this study, lynchet features comprising field systems were
considered as single entities rather than recording a single
feature for each system. In addition to the 2D display of
the raster image, the features were cross-sectioned using
the profile plugin allowing a description of their form as
well as their plan and significantly aiding feature type
interpretations (Figure 3).
Table 2. Workflow for the creation of a Local Relief Model, after Hesse 2010
Stage
Description
Figure 3. Profile of ground surface across a henge monument in the study area.
Location illustrated (top) and plotted (bottom)
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CASE STUDIES
7.4.4 RESULTS
The quantitative comparison of feature visibility across a
number of visualisations gave insight into the application
of each visualisation and their comparative usefulness.
For example, by mapping features from each shadedrelief model individually it was observed that changing
the altitude of the sun in the model from 45 to 10, 6%
more features were detectable. In comparison altering the
direction (angle east of North) from which the model was
illuminated caused a 12% difference in the number of
features mapped between the best and worst performing
angles. Such comparisons help to clarify the relative
importance of angle vs. azimuth. A summary of the key
results is presented below; a fuller discussion can be
found in Bennett et al. (2012).
Feature Visibility
Combining the results of all the visualization methods, a
total of 122 topographical features were mapped from the
ALS models, in comparison with 89 features that were
known from the NMP data. This increased the number of
known features by 37%. In total 76% of the features
References
164
CASE STUDIES
GRASS DEVELOPMENT TEAM, 2010. Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) Software.
Open Source Geospatial Foundation.
165
167
18. For the scaling and georeferencing of a photogrammetric block, the minimum number
of GCPs is 4.
19. Dense image matching is a fully automated procedure to derive dense point clouds
from images.
20. Structure from Motion methods rely on very short baselines.
21. Structure from Motion procedures separate the recovery of the interior from the
determination of the exterior parameters.
22. If they ask you a 1:100 map, which is the minimum GSD of the images (suppose a
graphical error of 0.2 mm)?
23. With a Nikon D3X camera and a 75 mm focal length, at which flying height should we
fly to have a GSD of 5 mm?
24. A swinglet UAV is the right platform to acquire images of building facades.
25. TOF laser scanners are optimal for the digitization of small archaeological artifacts.
26. Range maps need to be scaled before alignment.
27. Triangulation-based laser scanners are more accurate than TOF laser scanners.
28. The registration between laser scanner point clouds can only be done using targets.
29. CW TOF scanner are able to acquire more than 1 million points per second.
30. Laser scanners can have some problems on marble surfaces or when working outdoor.
31. Terrestrial laser scanning is a more portable and cheap approach than imaging
techniques.
32. Point cloud cleaning is a fully automated procedure in commercial software.
33. Terrestrial laser scanning is the best method to produce orthoimages.
34. Airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) can record multiple echoes of the emitted signal.
35. The main advantage of LiDAR instrument is the recovery of high-resolution images.
36. An ICP algorithm needs at least 4 points to start the iterative alignment procedure
between 2 point clouds.
37. Photogrammetry and laser scanning are complementary techniques for 3D recording
purposes.
38. Google Earth is a 3D GIS.
39. Airborne laser scanning is delivering directly a Digital Terrain Model (DTM).
40. An airborne laser scanner can reach a range (depth) discrimination of 5 cm.
41. 3D archaeological thinking is a common practice in cultural heritage.
42. The systematic collection of very accurate 3D documentation of archaeological
excavation does allow the archaeologist to virtually repeat infinitely the experience of
the archaeological excavation providing new interpretation?
43. How do you define a good survey?
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ANSWERS
1. YES. A holistic approach, centered on the relevance of information is of paramount
importance to understand the significance, integrity and possible threats to our built
heritage.
2. YES. There are among others conflicts and constraints, involving fragmentation,
longevity and reliability of information. As well as, the threat of generating digital
representations that might falsify instead of simplifying the understanding of our
heritage.
3. Multiple reasons:
a. the archaeological scientific community is very conservative and still use outdated
methodology;
b. its just a technological matter;
c. its a matter of archaeological interpretation process and tradition: archaeologists
have been and still are being educated to reduce and then to represent threedimensional archaeological information in two dimensions. However, this practice
should not be decried or under-valued, nor should it be seen as a banal response to
the absence of alternative technical solutions.
4. NO, thats basically photogrammetry. The traditional Remote Sensing technique deals
primary with image processing and scene classification with no (3D) feature extraction.
The availability of the recent high-resolution satellite (e.g. GeoEye, WorldView, etc.)
with ground resolutions smaller than a meter, has forced the convergence of the two
disciplines although Remote Sensing is traditionally dealing with image classification.
5. YES. This is a technology used on most of the satellites with (along-track) stereo
capabilities. The imaging sensor, while the satellite moves along the orbit, is turned in
the three position in order to picture the ground with three different looking angles.
6. NO. The minimum is 2 (stereo).
7. YES. Using the collinearity principle, you can derive 3D information but up-to a scale
factor. In order to define the datum and get metric results you need to provide a known
distance (scale) or some known 3D coordinates (Ground Control Points).
8. YES. You always need at least 2 images from two different point of views. Moreover
you need to consider the fact that light is travelling through two different material (air
and water).
9. GNSS receivers, total stations, detailed maps.
10. NO. The camera calibration procedure delivers the interior parameters (i.e. focal
length, principal point and additional parameters). The use of approximate values of the
interior parameters (e.g. from the EXIF) or not correctly computed values, leads to
errors and inaccuracy in the 3D reconstruction procedure.
11. YES. This is the right sequence of steps. Camera calibration is normally done in the
lab. The images are then acquired in the field with the same settings and values
employed during the calibration. Camera calibration can also be performed
simultaneously with the image orientation but you need a good image network in order
to correctly compute the interior parameters.
12. NO. The basic requirement of photogrammetry (and most image-based techniques) is
the identification of homologues points (e.g. correspondences) between the images.
Texture-less objects do not allow the automatic identification of such correspondences
(hardly also with manual procedures).
13. NO. The Ground Sample Distance (GSD) is the smallest element in object space that
has been imaged by the camera sensor. The relation between image and object space
can be expressed as:
Focal_length: Pixel_size = Distance_object-camera: GSD
So, assuming a camera with a focal length of 50 mm, a sensor with a pixel of 6 micron
and an acquisition distance of 2 m, the GSD is ca 0.24 mm. This means that I can
reconstruct in 3D details larger than 0.24 mm.
14. YES. They have advantages and disadvantages which can be highlighted and reduced,
respectively, by combining the two techniques.
169
15. NO. Computer Vision has normally as primary goal the automation of the processing
with less attention to the accuracy of the results.
16. NO. A rectify image is still a 2D product. Therefore its digitization delivers 2D vector
information. The rectification is normally performed assuming the area to-be rectified
planar.
17. NO. An orthoimage is a better product than a rectify image. An orthoimage is produced
starting from the digital 3D model of the entire scene (instead of assuming a planar
surface), therefore each pixel is correctly rectify using the underlying 3D geometry.
18. The datum definition requires at least 7 information in order to perform a rototranslation and a scale adjustment. This info can be provided in form of Ground
Control Points (GCP). As each point has 3 coordinates, you need at least 3 GCP (or
more precisely, 2 full GCP and e.g. one height value).
19. YES. Using different algorithms (Semi-global, Cross-correlation, Least-squares, etc.)
image correspondences are extracted (almost every pixel) and then transformed into 3D
coordinates using the previously recovered interior and exterior camera parameters.
This produces what is normally called dense point cloud, similar to what an active
sensor would produce.
20. YES. In order to automatically extract homologues points between overlapping images
and compute the unknown camera parameters, short baselines are mandatory. But too
short baselines will affect the accuracy of the computed 3D coordinates.
21. Normally NO. Most of the approaches simultaneously derive interior and exterior
camera parameters. But if the image network is not adequate, the interior parameters
are not correctly computed and so the accuracy of the object coordinates will be
negatively affected.
22. The following relation holds: scale = image_GSD / err.
Therefore a GSD of 20 mm is necessary for the realization / digitization of a map at
scale 1:100.
23. The camera has a 35.9 x 24 mm CMOS sensor. Assuming to acquire and store images
at the highest possible resolution (6048 x 4032 pixel), the pixel size of the sensor is ca
5.9 micron. Using an objective with 75 mm focal length, we need to fly at ca 63.5 m in
order to acquire images with 5 mm GSD.
24. NO. For vertical structures, a multi-rotor platform is a better solution as the camera can
be mounted in an oblique mode in order to picture the building faades.
25. NO. TOF scanners are more appropriate for large scenarios.
26. NO. Triangulation-based active sensors (e.g. laser scanners) deliver directly 3D point
clouds which are already scaled (thanks to the known internal parameter of the sensor).
27. YES. They digitize small scenes based on the triangulation measurement principle so
they can achieve very high accuracies.
28. NO. We can employ targets (distributed in the surveyed scene) which are used to
align the single scans, so reducing the computational time or we can employ the
entire point clouds with ICP or least squares methods.
29. YES.
30. YES. Marble has shown problems in case of laser scanning. Outdoor is problematic for
triangulation-based systems (based on laser light or pattern projection) due to the
interference with the sun light.
31. NO. For sure not really portable. There are some cheap solutions in the active sensors
domain but their reliability for accurate and detailed surveying is quite low.
32. NO.
33. NO. The radiometric quality of the cameras installed in the laser scanner (if any) is
normally quite low. Future improvements are foreseen.
34. YES. This is very helpful for scene classification and DTM generation.
35. NO.
170
36. NO. Assuming equal scale, two point clouds need to be co-registered by means of a
roto-translation transformation, i.e. 3 translations and 3 rotations. Normally, assuming a
small redundancy in the observations, just 3 points are necessary to compute the initial
alignment.
37. YES.
38. NO. At the moment, although it can display 3D models (low complexity), it does not
allow query functionalities.
39. NO. But using the echo and signal information, a DTM can easily be produced from
the recorded DSM.
40. NO, not at the moment.
41. NO. A fundamental need lies in the availability for archaeologists of an OPENSPACE into which it is possible to insert data acquired at various times in the past,
stratifying the information and at every stage measuring and comparing the original
observations, data or stratigraphical relationships but also wherever possible
modifying and updating that data in the light of new evidence. GIS provides an open
working environment which allows the management, analysis, data enhancement,
processing, visualization and sharing of hypothetical interpretations.
42. NO. In itself the process cannot be repeated. Indeed, the excavation consists not of
objective documentation of stratigraphical units but at root in the definition and
interpretation of those units.
43. Multiple answer:
a. Mainly a technical issue aimed to collect very accurate measurement of the site, the
excavation layers, historical buildings and monuments.
b. Engaging with the understanding of site, archaeological excavation or the history of
the building, identifying the chronological phases, pointing out variations of
technique, underlining stratigraphical relationships, noting anomalies, clarifying
engineering choices and summarizing in the final documentation the forms, colors,
state of preservation and quality of the materials used in the buildings construction.
Moreover, a good quality survey of cultural heritage should clearly distinguish
between the measurement phase and the mapping (interpretation) process.
171