Craig Alexander, Paolo Medici, Axel Pinz, Markus Seidl
Archaeologists often face the problem of addressing large, complex sites at various spatial scales from the micro to the macro. In a rock-art context, micro scale issues would include, amongst others, the shapes of individual peck marks, variation in peck mark depth, superimposition and the presence of pigments. Macro scale issues, on the other hand, would include such topics as intervisibility between sites or within a site, the visual prominence of individual surfaces and the spatial randomness or nonrandomness of images.
Using modern computer vision and visualisation technologies, these assessments can be greatly faciltated via 3D reconstruction (at various scales), automatic image classification and 3D spatial analyses. Complete and sufficiently detailed 3D models even enable telepresence, in some cases even simultaneously for multiple users: an immersive, collaborative virtual experience.
This session is devoted to the various challenges that need to be addressed when such technologies are developed or adapted to the particular requirements of archaeologists studying rock-art and rock-art sites. Topics of this session include, but are not limited to:
- scanning a site at vastly different spatial scales to produce 3D models
- radiometric data capture beyond phototexture
- analytical tools that utilise 3D information, e.g. segmentation and classification based on depth information
- online, multiuser visualisation, including novel graphical analysis and interaction paradigms
- data structures that enable a feasible workflow for field archaeologists.
