Last modified: 2011-12-22
Abstract
Introduction
The proliferation of new technologies have provided archaeologists and architects with many novel ways to record, represent and investigate archaeological sites with standing structures and subsurface features. At the University of Notre Dame we have formed an interdisciplinary team of experts from Anthropology, Archaeology, Architecture, Center for Research Computing and the Office of Information Technologies to investigate and develop new digital imaging and documentation techniques and workflows. One goal is to explore ways of using new digital technologies to document and bring inaccessible field site experiences back to the lab and classroom. Another aim is to create precisely rendered 3D images of cultural artifacts and historic sites to allow in-depth research and display via the Internet.
Technologies
Our project is currently exploring how best to combine two primary technologies into a single interactive system for cataloging, analyzing and displaying both point and raster data at extremely high resolutions. The two primary technologies we are using are the Gigapan System which enables high resolution digital cameras to create extremely high resolution explorable panoramic photographs and the Leica ScanStation, a time-of-flight laser scanning system capable of creating point clouds with a resolution of 0.5mm for highly accurate field measurement, virtual reconstruction and 3D visualization of World Heritage and culturally significant national and local historic sites.
This poster explains and illustrates recent work by the University of Notre Dame Digital Historic Architectural Research and Material Analysis (D.H.A.R.M.A.) group documenting the Roman Forum and two Buddhist tomb sites in India using Gigapan and Leica ScanStation equipment and post processing workflows to combine the data in unique ways. In July 2010 the D.H.A.R.M.A team of Notre Dame School of Architecture faculty and students traveled to the Roman Forum – the center of political, religious, commercial, and judicial life in ancient Rome. Permission was granted by Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma, Minstry of Heritage and Culture and the Archaeological Service to accurately measure and draw the monuments and ruins at the Roman Forum. The team produced 27 scans, 30 panoramic views, scaled drawings, detailed images, in addition to hand-measured data. The India sites will be scanned and photographed in January 2012.
Further work is being coordinated with research specialists from the Notre Dame Center for Research Computing to create an open-source, web accessible method capable of fusing gigapixel images with laser point cloud data sets to create accurate, interactive 3D models.
As part of the poster we plan to incorporate 2D and 3D images utilizing a short-throw pico projector to further explain and illustrate recent work by D.H.A.R.M.A. in Rome and India with Gigapan and Leica ScanStation.