A Theoretical Framework for Stigmergetic Reconstruction of Ancient Text

Ch’ng, Eugene; Lewis, Andrew; Gehlken, Rolf Erlend; Woolley, Sandra

doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-5535-5_4

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…With the exception of Ch'ng et al (2013) which suggests that a solution to the problems associated with cuneiform reconstruction may exist in the field of complexity science, there is currently no published research specific to cuneiform reconstruction strategy. The first goal of the research presented here was to determine some of the basic techniques employed by participants to match together and to discard clay fragments in both the real and virtual world.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More generally, the application of techniques for the automatic recording and illustration of artifacts (Gilboa et al 2013) could be applied to 3D cuneiform models, and used to streamline the process of documentation while removing one potential source of recording error. More specific techniques for the reconstruction of cuneiform tablets have been made in Ch'ng et al 2013 andCh'ng 2012, which include the analysis of the complete tablet size as a template for fragment reconstruction, and the use of stigmergy as a model for interaction between users.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Observed methods of cuneiform tablet reconstruction in virtual and real world environments

Lewis

Woolley

Ch’ng

et al. 2015

Journal of Archaeological Science

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A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. AbstractThe reconstruction of fragmented artefacts is a tedious process that consumes many valuable work hours of scholars' time. We believe that such work can be made more efficient via new techniques in interactive virtual environments. The purpose of this research is to explore approaches to the reconstruction of cuneiform tablets in the real and virtual environment, and to address the potential barriers to virtual reconstruction of fragments. In this paper we present the results of an experiment exploring the reconstruction strategies employed by individual users working with tablet fragments in real and virtual environments. Our findings have identified physical factors that users find important to the reconstruction process and further explored the subjective usefulness of stereoscopic 3D in the reconstruction process. Our results, presented as dynamic graphs of interaction, compare the precise order of movement and rotation interactions, and the frequency of interaction achieved by successful and unsuccessful participants with some surprising insights. We present evidence that certain interaction styles and behaviours characterise success in the reconstruction process.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observed methods of cuneiform tablet reconstruction in virtual and real world environments

Lewis

Woolley

Ch’ng

et al. 2015

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…However, to populate environments with 3D models of real objects, there is a need to simplify and automate the acquisition process. With this achieved, a mature i3D collaborative artefact reconstruction environment could crowd-source human effort from communities of scholars, researchers and interested citizen science partners, and nature-inspired software agents could work in the background in stigmergic fashion, i.e., coordinated indirectly from environmental traces (Ch'ng et al, 2013). Thus, human and computer efforts could combine again to support reconstruction, attempting joins for fragments with matching catalogue fields and using interaction data, for example, fragment join attempts or fragment-fragment and fragment-user interactions.…”

Section: Conclusion and Further Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Collaborative Artefact Reconstruction Environment

Woolley

Ch’ng

Hernandez-Munoz

et al. 2017

Electronic Workshops in Computing

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A novel collaborative artefact reconstruction environment design is presented that is informed by experimental task observation and participatory design. The motivation for the design was to enable collaborative human and computer effort in the reconstruction of fragmented cuneiform tablets: millennia-old clay tablets used for written communication in early human civilisation. Thousands of joining cuneiform tablet fragments are distributed within and between worldwide collections. The reconstruction of the tablets poses a complex 3D jigsaw puzzle with no physically tractable solution.In reconstruction experiments, participants collaborated synchronously and asynchronously on virtual and physical reconstruction tasks. Results are presented that demonstrate the difficulties experienced by human reconstructors in virtual tasks compared to physical tasks. Unlike computer counterparts, humans have difficulty identifying joins in virtual environments but, unlike computers, humans are averse to making incorrect joins. A successful reconstruction environment would marry the opposing strengths and weaknesses of humans and computers, and provide tools to support the communications and interactions of successful physical performance, in the virtual setting.The paper presents a taxonomy of the communications and interactions observed in successful physical and synchronous collaborative reconstruction tasks. Tools for the support of these communications and interactions were successfully incorporated in the "i3D" virtual environment design presented.

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“…Excavated cuneiform tablets are typically fragmented and their reconstruction poses a puzzle of considerable complexity [7]. The puzzle's "pieces" are small complex 3D forms (the dimensions of 8000 catalogued tablets extracted from the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) database [8] had an average width and length of 4.3 and 5.1 cm, respectively [9]), they belong to an unknown number of complete or incomplete tablets, and they are distributed within and between museum collections worldwide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Low-Cost Photogrammetric Acquisition of 3D Models from Small Form-Factor Artefacts

et al. 2019

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The photogrammetric acquisition of 3D object models can be achieved by Structure from Motion (SfM) computation of photographs taken from multiple viewpoints. All-around 3D models of small artefacts with complex geometry can be difficult to acquire photogrammetrically and the precision of the acquired models can be diminished by the generic application of automated photogrammetric workflows. In this paper, we present two versions of a complete rotary photogrammetric system and an automated workflow for all-around, precise, reliable and low-cost acquisitions of large numbers of small artefacts, together with consideration of the visual quality of the model textures. The acquisition systems comprise a turntable and (i) a computer and digital camera or (ii) a smartphone designed to be ultra-low cost (less than $150). Experimental results are presented which demonstrate an acquisition precision of less than 40 µm using a 12.2 Megapixel digital camera and less than 80 µm using an 8 Megapixel smartphone. The novel contribution of this work centres on the design of an automated solution that achieves high-precision, photographically textured 3D acquisitions at a fraction of the cost of currently available systems. This could significantly benefit the digitisation efforts of collectors, curators and archaeologists as well as the wider population.

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A Theoretical Framework for Stigmergetic Reconstruction of Ancient Text

Cited by 7 publications

References 20 publications

Observed methods of cuneiform tablet reconstruction in virtual and real world environments

Observed methods of cuneiform tablet reconstruction in virtual and real world environments

A Collaborative Artefact Reconstruction Environment

Automated Low-Cost Photogrammetric Acquisition of 3D Models from Small Form-Factor Artefacts

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