3D Point Clouds in Archaeology: Advances in Acquisition, Processing and Knowledge Integration Applied to Quasi-Planar Objects

Abstract

Digital investigations of the real world through point clouds and derivatives are changing how curators, cultural heritage researchers and archaeologists work and collaborate. To progressively aggregate expertise and enhance the working proficiency of all professionals, virtual reconstructions demand adapted tools to facilitate knowledge dissemination. However, to achieve this perceptive level, a point cloud must be semantically rich, retaining relevant information for the end user. In this paper, we review the state of the art of point cloud integration within archaeological applications, giving an overview of 3D technologies for heritage, digital exploitation and case studies showing the assimilation status within 3D GIS. Identified issues and new perspectives are addressed through a knowledge-based point cloud processing framework for multi-sensory data, and illustrated on mosaics and quasi-planar objects. A new acquisition, pre-processing, segmentation and ontology-based classification method on hybrid point clouds from both terrestrial laser scanning and dense image matching is proposed to enable reasoning for information extraction. Experiments in detection and semantic enrichment show promising results of 94% correct semantization. Then, we integrate the metadata in an archaeological smart point cloud data structure allowing spatio-semantic queries related to CIDOC-CRM. Finally, a WebGL prototype is presented that leads to efficient communication between actors by proposing optimal 3D data visualizations as a basis on which interaction can grow.

Earth Observation, Remote Sensing and Geoscientific Ground Investigations for Archaeological and Heritage Research

“…Agapiou et al [8] 3278 1904 5 Agapiou et al [3] 1708 970 8 Chyla [9] 1429 827 1 Comer et al [5] 1570 1102 3 Corso et al [12] 1753 1215 2 Danti et al [10] 1943 1740 7 Drap et al [13] 1571 1565 2 Gade et al [6] 1751 1210 4 Garcia-Garcia et al [14] 1282 995 1 Guidi et al [15] 1719 976 3 Kalayci et al [16] 1218 968 2 Křivánek [17] 1420 1174 2 Malinverni et al [18] 1445 1345 1 Parcak et al [11] 1486 1374 3 Poux et al [19] 2306 2249 7 Rayne et al [7] 1750 1500 5 Rutishauser et al [4] 1784 1345 2 Sonnemann et al [20] 1582 1046 2 Tapete [1] 1256 2313 3 Traviglia & Torsello [2] 1680 1311 9 Verhoeven [21] 1573 1399 6 Building upon the positive outcome achieved in 2017 and in order to continue this Special Series, in March 2018 I launched the call for papers for a second edition of the Special Issue with the title "Earth Observation, Remote Sensing and Geoscientific Ground Investigations for Archaeological and Heritage Research".…”

Remote Sensing and Geosciences for Archaeology

“…As rightly recalled by Poux et al [26], point clouds and derivatives are changing the way curators, cultural heritage researchers, and archaeologists investigate heritage and collaborate on its understanding.…”

“…Poux et al [26] propose a classification method that relies on hybrid point clouds from both terrestrial laser scanning and dense image matching, and feeds into a WebGL prototype enabling different heritage actors to interact in a collaborative way. The geometric reconstruction, therefore, serves as a digital platform for storing and sharing relevant information and for easing communication with and between end-users.…”

“…The papers published in the Special Issue cover a wide spectrum of techniques: satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging [11,16,17]; optical remote sensing from high to very-high resolution space-borne sensors [12,13,[18][19][20][21]; geophysics including magnetometer surveys, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), geoelectric resistivity measurements, multi frequency Electromagnetic Induction (EMI), piezoelectric/seismoelectric methods [9,22,23]; photogrammetry [24]; terrestrial laser scanning and three-dimensional (3D) point clouds [25,26]. Some of the papers also explore the benefits of combining different approaches, e.g., optical remote sensing, aerial imagery and geophysical prospection [27,28], 3D surveys, and reconstruction in GIS environment [29].…”

Measuring Surface Area of Leaf based on Multi-Angle Images

“…A hand-held camera can be used to obtain multiple-angle images of the target. Then, the three-dimensional information of the target can be obtained through bundle adjustment method, image matching technology and related mathematical calculations, which is more convenient and economical compared with coordinate measuring machines and range scanners [12]. These off-line systems can be used for 3D modeling and measurement, which has lots of advantages such as high precision, abundant information and noncontact detection.…”