Konrad F. Karner

3D MURALE: a multimedia system for archaeology

This paper introduces the 3D Measurement and Virtual Reconstruction of Ancient Lost Worlds of Europe system (3D MURALE). It consists of a set of tools for recording, reconstructing, encoding, visualising and database searching/querying that operate on buildings, building parts, statues, statue parts, pottery, stratigraphy, terrain geometry and texture and material texture. The tools are loosely linked together by a common database on which they all have the facility to store and access data. The paper describes the overall architecture of the 3D MURALE system and then briefly describes the functionality of the tools provided by the project. The paper compares the multimedia studio architecture adopted in this project with other multimedia studio architectures.

High-quality texture reconstruction from multiple views†

This paper presents a method to automatically calculate texture maps for a given three-dimensional object out of a sequence of images. It is used in our image-based modeling approach after the registration of the images and the geometric modeling is done. We show that the presented method uses the information from all images by implicitly applying a weighting function. Using this approach the consideration of modeled occlusions as well as the detection and removal of non-modeled occlusions is accomplished. The final resolution of the texture maps can be adjusted on a pixel/cm basis. Copyright

Multiresolution Texture for Photorealistic Rendering

This paper presents a method to automatically calculate texture maps for a given 3D object from a sequence of images. It is used in our image-based modeling approach after the registration of the images and the geometric modeling has been done. We show that the presented method uses the information from all images by implicitly applying a weighting function. Using this approach, the consideration of modeled occlusions as well as the detection and removal of non-modeled occlusions is accomplished. The final resolution of the texture maps can be adjusted on a pixel/cm basis.

Providing multimedia tools for recording, reconstruction, visualisation and database storage/access of archaeological excavations

Over the years archaeologists have been swift to embrace new advances in technology that allow them to more comprehensively document the results of their work. Today it is commonplace to find information technologies, in the form MS Office-type tools with some CAD and GIS, deployed for primary data capture, analysis, presentation and publication. While these computing technologies can be used effectively to record and interpret archaeological sites, the radical developments in 3D recording, reconstruction and visualisation tools have had relatively limited impact upon the archaeological community. This is unfortunate as these new technologies have the potential to (a) enable the archaeologists to record their unrepeatable experiments to unprecedented levels of accuracy, (b) enable the archaeologists to reconstruct artefacts such as pottery from sherds, textures and sites from different eras (c) visualise the wealth of excavated information in dynamic new ways away from the archaeological site during post-excavation analysis, (d) make this wealth of detail available to the scholarly community as part of the publication process and secure its digital longevity through its deposition in a trusted digital library/archive and (e) communicate the excitement and importance of their archaeological site and its finds to an interested non-academic audience. This paper describes the overall concept of the EU funded project, 3D Measurement and Virtual Reconstruction of Ancient Lost Worlds of Europe (3D MURALE), that has developed and created a set of low-cost multimedia tools for recording, reconstructing, encoding, and visualising archaeological artefacts and site.

Urban site models: accurate, detailed, rapid and inexpensive

Three-dimensional computer models of urban areas have become the latest topic of discussion in photogrammetric circles, although the production of such models has long been a standard offering of photogram-metric data providers. Initial “killer applications” of such data have been in defense organizations to support military operations in urban terrain (MOUT), and in the Telecom industry in their optimization of certain communications networks that depend on line-of-sight analyses in urban environments. Other applications are trailing behind these trailblazing needs.