DECHO—a framework for the digital exploration of cultural heritage objects

Abstract

We present a framework for the digital exploration of cultural heritage objects. Today computing and information technology is pervasive and ubiquitous and has boosted at unprecedented levels information diffusion and productivity. Such technology is today a ripe context for succinctly gathering knowledge by combining in innovative ways powerful visualization tactics, rapid access to a significant amount of relevant information, domain-specific knowledge, and rich and pervasive tools to sort, group, and slice the information and knowledge in different ways. To this end, we present a complete framework that is easy to use, does not require expensive/custom equipment, and has been designed for helping archaeology researchers and educators reconstruct and analyze the historical context of cultural heritage objects. Our main inspiration is that archaeology today would benefit significantly from having spur-of-the-moment access to information from a variety of heterogeneous data sources and being able to have multiple participants visually observe factual and visual data in an intuitive and natural setting. While we present a framework geared towards archaeology, in the long term we envision reusing it in a variety of fields.Concretely, our framework includes data acquisition, data management, and data visualization components. The data acquisition component enables the fast, easy, and accurate addition of 3D object models and factual data, including narrations. The data management component includes a novel semantic database system that provides an intuitive view of the available contents in terms of an ontology, supports the addition of narrations, integrates data stored by other databases, and supports object retrieval, browsing and knowledge navigation. The data visualization component provides visual feedback which is a crucial part of an exploratory endeavor. It provides the ability to alter the appearance of archaeological objects, complete fragments of 3D object models, and several compelling forms of digital inspection and information visualization. All algorithms exploit knowledge from the database and from the obtained 3D models. Visuals can be applied on top of the physical object or on a 3D model shown in a traditional display, controllable via a webpage interface.

An annales school-based serious game creation framework for taiwanese indigenous cultural heritage

“…The reconstruction of tangible cultural assets, such as architecture, sculpture, and handicrafts, can be achieved using digitization and 2D or 3D modeling [Foni et al 2010;Aliaga et al 2011]. Although reconstructing intangible cultural assets such as art forms and dances is more difficult, they can be conveyed by utilizing scientific multimedia [Mallik et al 2011].…”

Ontologies for the metadata annotation of stories

“…CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) is a formal ontology intended to facilitate the integration and interchange of heterogeneous cultural heritage information [23], and has provided the base for other projects. For example, the DECHO system [24] elaborates a conceptual model of the archeological domain to support the exploration of cultural heritage objects, encompassing digital images, 3D models of objects and environments, and narratives, with the ontology establishing connections among them. The goal is an interaction with a 3D virtual environment for accessing a corpus of textual documentation about the displayed objects.…”

A Semantic e-Science Platform for 20th Century Paint Conservation

“…Below are described significant related research efforts that have leveraged Semantic Web technologies to integrate data across museums and art galleries (Aliaga et al, 2011, Binding, 2010, Binding et al, 2008, Hyvönen et al, 2006, Mellon, 2009, Monroy et al, 2010, Toledo et al, 2009, Tudhope et al, 2011, Vlachidis, 2012, Vlachidis et al, 2013. The examples discussed in this section represent the most significant or innovative projects: Following the ConservationSpace efforts, the conceptual model, and the technical framework were implemented within the ResearchSpace project (Alexiev et al, Oldman, 2010, Oldman et al, 2014.…”

“…This section provides an overview of significant related research efforts that have leveraged Semantic Web technologies to reason over, and query data across museums and art galleries (Aroyo et al, 2007, Aliaga et al, 2011, Barak et al, 2009, Koutsomitropoulos and Papatheodorou, 2007, Kurtz et al, 2009, Hyvönen et al, 2006, Haslhofer et al, 2010, OeRC, 2014, Monroy et al, 2010, van Ossenbruggen et al, 2007, Sanderson and Van de Sompel, 2010, Schmidt et al, 2011, Theodoridou et al, 2010, Toledo et al, 2009, Wielemaker et al, 2008. Resources, and Things); b) the ability for users to select a geographic location and display it in a map using an ontology taken from BUSTER (a system developed at the University of Bremen to integrate and query heterogeneous information from different geospatial datasets); and c) virtual objects in the form of Web-based resources (e.g., a story-telling system).…”

“…A major factor, which makes the data integration used in this study different from other approaches in the cultural heritage informatics domain (Aliaga et al, 2011, Binding, 2010, Binding et al, 2008, Hyvönen et al, 2006, Mellon, 2009, Monroy et al, 2010, Toledo et al, 2009, is the focus on the specific requirements and cross-disciplinary software; and a set of related publicly available databases (e.g., W&N, DAAO, IRUG Spectral Database, and CAMEO); and 2) answer sophisticated and multi-disciplinary queries about art/paint conservation that were not previously possible through a single search interface.…”