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

Abstract

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.

Description, translation and process: Making the implicit explicit in digital editions of ancient text-bearing objects

“…4 This sort of information could be used in a process that proposes compatible fragments for a machine-assisted resolution of broken texts or objects (e.g. Koller & Levoy 2006;Lewis 2015;Toler-Franklin et al 2010;Reggiani 2017: 152-54;Brusuelas 2016).…”

Computational aspects of model acquisition and join geometry for the virtual reconstruction of the atrahasis cuneiform tablet

“…The overall project aim of virtual cuneiform tablet reconstruction [6] has been investigated using an online collaborative crowd-sourced approach [17], [18] as well as an automated joining process [8]. The automated process was used for the Atrahasis fragments because it reliably ensures that the optimal matching orientation is found and also yields statistics indicating the goodness of the fit.…”

A Collaborative Artefact Reconstruction Environment

“…Recommendations have been made for a variety of interface enhancements (Heldal et al, 2005;Lewis et al, 2015), ideally, selected to suit the application (Karaseitanidis et al, 2006), and to return some functional aspects of reality to the virtual setting. Recommendations include relatively simple interaction enhancement, for example, 3DConnexion's SpaceMouse™ with push, pull, tilt and twist controls, through to the substantial technological resource provisioned by immersive CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) environments (Heldal et al, 2006;Wolff et al, 2007) with projected visual displays and user motion tracking to enable physical gestures to be interpreted and relayed to the user's surrounding virtual world.…”