Maurizio Seracini

Wetpaint: scraping through multi-layered images

We introduce a technique for exploring multi-layered images by scraping arbitrary areas to determine meaningful relationships. Our system, called Wetpaint, uses perceptual depth cues to help users intuitively navigate between corresponding layers of an image, allowing a rapid assessment of changes and relationships between different views of the same area. Inspired by art diagnostic techniques, this tactile method could have distinct advantages in the general domain as shown by our user study. We propose that the physical metaphor of scraping facilitates the process of determining correlations between layers of an image because it compresses the process of planning, comparison and annotation into a single gesture. We discuss applications for geography, design, and medicine.

ARtifact: Tablet-Based Augmented Reality for Interactive Analysis of Cultural Artifacts

To ensure the preservation of cultural heritage, artifacts such as paintings must be analyzed to diagnose physical frailties that could result in permanent damage. Advancements in digital imaging techniques and computer-aided analysis have greatly aided in such diagnoses but can limit the ability to work directly with the artifact in the field. This paper presents the implementation and application of ARtifact, a tablet-based augmented reality system that enables on-site visual analysis of the artifact in question. Utilizing real-time tracking of the artifact under observation, a user interacting with the tablet can study various layers of data registered with the physical object in situ. Theses layers, representing data acquired through various imaging modalities such as infrared thermography and ultraviolet fluorescence, provide the user with an augmented view of the artifact to aid in on-site diagnosis and restoration. Intuitive interaction techniques further enable targeted analysis of artifact-related data. We present a case study utilizing our tablet system to analyze a 16th century Italian hall and highlight the benefits of our approach.

Advanced Applications of Virtual Reality

Abstract In the first 5 years of virtual reality application research at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), we created numerous software applications for virtual environments. Calit2 has one of the most advanced virtual reality laboratories with the five-walled StarCAVE and the worlds first passive stereo, LCD panel-based immersive virtual reality system, the NexCAVE. The combination of cutting edge hardware, direct access to world class researchers on the campus of UCSD, and Calit2s mission to bring the first two together to make new advances at the intersection of these disciplines enabled us to research the future of scientific virtual reality applications. This chapter reports on some of the most notable applications we developed.

Tangible Interfaces for Art Restoration

Few people experience art the way a restorer does: as a tactile, multi-dimensional and ever-changing object. The authors investigate a set of tools for the distributed analysis of artworks in physical and digital realms. Their work is based on observation of professional art restoration practice and rich data available through multi-spectral imaging. The article presents a multidisciplinary approach to develop interfaces usable by restorers, students and amateurs. Several interaction techniques were built using physical metaphors to navigate the layers of information revealed by multi-spectral imaging, prototyped using single-and multi-touch displays. The authors built modular systems to accommodate the technical needs and resources of various institutions and individuals, with the aim to make high-quality art diagnostics possible on different hardware platforms, as well as rich diagnostic and historic information about art available for education and research through a cohesive set of web-based tools instantiated in physical interfaces and public installations.

Wipe‐Off: An Intuitive Interface for Exploring Ultra‐Large Multi‐Spectral Data Sets for Cultural Heritage Diagnostics

A visual analytics technique for the intuitive, hands‐on analysis of massive, multi‐dimensional and multi‐variate data is presented. This multi‐touch‐based technique introduces a set of metaphors such as wiping, scratching, sandblasting, squeezing and drilling, which allow for rapid analysis of global and local characteristics in the data set, accounting for factors such as gesture size, pressure and speed. A case study is provided for the analysis of multi‐spectral image data of cultural artefacts. By aligning multi‐spectral layers in a stack, users can apply different multi‐touch metaphors to investigate features across different wavelengths. With this technique, flexibly definable regions can be interrogated concurrently without affecting surrounding data.

Airborne imaging for cultural heritage

We present our work in designing and deploying airborne sensor vehicles specifically for cultural heritage applications. Numerous practical cultural heritage missions in survey, assessment, and conservation work can benefit from the utility of specializing commodity and customizable airborne platforms to collect visual and non-visual data. These systems and customizations therein have undergone several generations of development both in our own designs and in the research community at large. We discuss the historical application of airborne imaging to cultural heritage conservation and surveying as well as discuss the design evolution towards multi-rotor systems from conventional rotary-wing and fixed-wing systems. This discussion addresses the fundamental principles of operation, as well as the capabilities, contemporary methods and commodity components available for the implementation of such a system. We present our current system and its features in concert with example payloads of utility in conducting these practical reconnaissance missions, as well as useful post-processing techniques, as well as future work in applied visualization.

Airborne imaging: Systems, deployments, practices and capabilities

This paper presents a functional implementation of an unmanned aerial vehicle complete with image acquisition payloads for the documentation and virtual reconstruction of cultural heritage sites. We discuss technological advances in unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as contemporary practices in implementation, which have evolved in the direction of reducing costs, enabling new functionalities, and emerging applications in cultural heritage fieldwork. These advances are the basis for the design and execution of our unmanned aircraft, which we develop to collect unique and comprehensive datasets in challenging acquisition scenarios at active cultural heritage sites. Our platform is able to perform visual imaging, using a variety of acquisition triggers and mechanisms to enable high-resolution in-plane site photogrammetry, oblique aerial examinations of large sites, and sequence acquisitions for use in structure from motion based volumetric reconstructions of specific areas of interest. This data is in turn suitable for exploration with or without volumetric post processing techniques using visual analysis techniques using interactive high resolution tiled display inspection environments.