A Web Community for Digitising Cultural Heritage Assets

Andrew WilsonBangor University

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Outline

• Context of the project− Overview

− What kind of heritage?

• Challenges facing archaeologists

• HeritageTogether− Photogrammetry

− Crowdsourcing

− HeritageTogether pipeline

• Engaging the public

• Engaging the academics

• Future work

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Overview3

“HeritageTogether is a project that aims to create 3D models of megalithic monuments (such as standing stones

and burial chambers) in Wales, UK, from crowd-sourced images. Members of the public upload their photographs

of the sites to the project website. Models are created using an open source Structure-from-Motion (SfM) work

flow”

Overview4

What kind of heritage?

Standing Stones5

Cairns6

Dolmens7

Passage Graves8

Challenges facing Archaeologists9

• Sites under threat from– Weather– Changes in climate– Urban development

• Time to survey sites

– Takes many hours for each site

• Number of sites to survey

– Over 2,500 sites identified in Wales

Recording Sites

• Traditional Recording

– Hand-drawn plans

– Measurements

• A Digital Record

– Photographs

– Total Station

– GPS

– Photogrammetry

– Laser scanning

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Photogrammmetry11

Photogrammmetry12

Crowdsourceing

Can the general public help?

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Crowdsourced 3D Modelling

They upload their photographs of a site,

we process the model and make it available on the website

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Crowdsourced 3D Modelling15

+ more…

1. A series of photographs

2. Sparse point cloud

Keypoints identified using SIFT

Camera position and pose estimated using a

sparse bundle adjustment system

CMVS breaks data into clusters

3. Dense point cloud

PMVS2 uses camera positions to

approximate 3D structure

Crowdsourced 3D Modelling16

3. Dense point cloud

4. Mesh

5. Textured Model

Poisson Surface Reconstruction

Texture created from blend of original images

Getting the Models Online17

5. Textured Model

Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation

Export X3D

X3DOM on webpage

6. Models in Browser

Engaging the Academics20

Engaging the Academics

Engaging the Public22

Exhibitions

Tangible Models

Open Days

Demonstrations

Workshops

Future Work

• Methods of improving the processing

• Analysis of the models

– Classification based on shape

– Extraction of data from models

• Tools for archaeologists

– Analysis of rock art and site information

– Compare sites

• Tools for the public

– Analyse maps and site information 23

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A Web Community for Digitising Cultural Heritage Assets

Thank you!