Living the past: 3D models, virtual reality and game engines as tools for supporting archaeology and the reconstruction of cultural heritage – the case-study of the Roman villa of Casal de Freiria

Rua, Helena; Alvito, Pedro

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.07.015

Cited by 110 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Rua and Alvito [23]), to provide this engagement and allow audiences to feel immersed in the past (for an example see the VMUST Keys to Rome project 2014 [24]). I suggest that this is a problematic approach for a number of reasons, not least the necessity of disambiguating multiple interpretations of the past in order to construct meaningful game objectives.…”

Section: Beautiful By Accidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging Heritage Visualisation: Beauty, Aura and Democratisation

Jeffrey

2015

Open Archaeology

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Abstract:In this paper I will pose a challenge to digital heritage visualisation that takes as its starting point the weirdness of the digital world in comparison to everyday experience. Related to this is the apparent inability for digital objects to benefit from or acquire aura from their originals. I contend that, unless mitigated, these properties will cause a continuing lack of engagement with digital heritage visualisation beyond the professional and academic circles in which they are created. Contrary to expectations, I will argue digital objects can indeed manifest an auratic quality and that this is in fact fundamental to how they are received by various audiences. I contend that both aura and the intimate relationship between digital representation, aesthetics and the creative imagination need to be understood and embraced in practice. Finally, I will suggest some ways of addressing the challenge by looking at modes of co-production, physical replication and aesthetic quality. The ChallengeOver the last two decades, digital visualisation methodologies have become firmly embedded in the canon of archaeological practice. Archaeologists and heritage managers have drawn on a range of recording technologies to generate highly accurate datasets of historic objects, monuments and landscapes. They have also increasingly drawn on the rich functionality of 3D modelling packages to create visualisations and reconstructions of the past. 3D datasets, and the visualisations generated from them, are used in site recording, site management, structural analysis, archaeological interpretation and hypothesis testing, and increasingly, as a dissemination mode for broader audiences. In this paper I will focus on the challenge we face in using heritage visualisation to help us think anew about the past itself, rather than strictly in relation to their function as digital documents of real world heritage objects, structures and landscapes.In the digital domain long-standing issues of data integration, discovery and long-term preservation have now begun to be tackled in a meaningful way. Engagement with multiple audiences through digital visualisation is possible and, if good practice is followed, the visualisations are discoverable, referenceable (e.g. via DOI), contextualised and permanently available. This should herald a Golden Age in heritage visualisations. However, there is a danger that the quest for new technological approaches, precision, accuracy and apparent realism becomes an end in itself, following a path that Huggett has referred to as technological fetishism [1]. In this paper, I will argue that there remain significant challenges that need to be addressed if we are to capitalise on this potential Golden Age.

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Section: Beautiful By Accidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging Heritage Visualisation: Beauty, Aura and Democratisation

Jeffrey

2015

Open Archaeology

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“…The result is the sensation that you are looking around a very realistic 3D world. In Rua and Alvito (2011), 3D models, virtual reality and game engines (Bethesda Softworks 2011) are combined as a tool for reconstruction of cultural heritage, including avatars driven by artificial intelligence (AI). AI scripts are added to assign a set of predetermined actions and reactions such as going for a walk or complex actions amounting to a defined daily timetable, or pre-defined dialogues.…”

Section: Visualisation Techniques and Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualisation techniques to support public interpretation of future climate change and land-use choices: a case study from N-E Scotland

Wang

Miller

Brown

et al. 2015

International Journal of Digital Earth

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“…The original aim of DILAS was the efficient generation, management and visualisation of large 3D landscapes and city models. (Rua and Alvito, 2011) propose the creation of a series of methods and tools for testing and analysing theories and hypotheses for historical scenarios through the use of 3D modelling tools and virtual reality engines. introduce the "3D Measurement and Virtual Reconstruction of Ancient Lost World of Europe" system (3D MURALE).…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

CASTLE3D - A Computer Aided System for Labelling Archaeological Excavations in 3D

Houshiar

Borrmann

Elseberg

et al. 2015

ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.

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ABSTRACT:Documentation of archaeological excavation sites with conventional methods and tools such as hand drawings, measuring tape and archaeological notes is time consuming. This process is prone to human errors and the quality of the documentation depends on the qualification of the archaeologist on site. Use of modern technology and methods in 3D surveying and 3D robotics facilitate and improve this process. Computer-aided systems and databases improve the documentation quality and increase the speed of data acquisition. 3D laser scanning is the state of the art in modelling archaeological excavation sites, historical sites and even entire cities or landscapes. Modern laser scanners are capable of data acquisition of up to 1 million points per second. This provides a very detailed 3D point cloud of the environment. 3D point clouds and 3D models of an excavation site provide a better representation of the environment for the archaeologist and for documentation. The point cloud can be used both for further studies on the excavation and for the presentation of results. This paper introduces a Computer aided system for labelling archaeological excavations in 3D (CASTLE3D). Consisting of a set of tools for recording and georeferencing the 3D data from an excavation site, CASTLE3D is a novel documentation approach in industrial archaeology. It provides a 2D and 3D visualisation of the data and an easy-to-use interface that enables the archaeologist to select regions of interest and to interact with the data in both representations. The 2D visualisation and a 3D orthogonal view of the data provide cuts of the environment that resemble the traditional hand drawings. The 3D perspective view gives a realistic view of the environment. CASTLE3D is designed as an easy-to-use on-site semantic mapping tool for archaeologists. Each project contains a predefined set of semantic information that can be used to label findings in the data. Multiple regions of interest can be joined under one label. Further information such as color, orientation and archaeological notes are added to the label to improve the documentation. The available 3D information allows for easy measurements in the data. The full 3D information of a region of interest can be segmented from the entire data. By joining this data from different georeferenced views the full 3D shape of findings is stored. All the generated documentation in CASTLE3D is exported to an XML format and serves as input for other systems and databases. Apart from presenting the functionalities of CASTLE3D we evaluate its documentation process in a sample project. For this purpose we export the data to the Adiuvabit database (http://adiuvabit.de) where more information is added for further analysis. The documentation process is compared to traditional documentation methods and it is shown how the automated system helps in accelerating the documentation process and decreases errors to a minimum.

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Living the past: 3D models, virtual reality and game engines as tools for supporting archaeology and the reconstruction of cultural heritage – the case-study of the Roman villa of Casal de Freiria

Cited by 110 publications

References 5 publications

Challenging Heritage Visualisation: Beauty, Aura and Democratisation

Challenging Heritage Visualisation: Beauty, Aura and Democratisation

Visualisation techniques to support public interpretation of future climate change and land-use choices: a case study from N-E Scotland

CASTLE3D - A Computer Aided System for Labelling Archaeological Excavations in 3D

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