René Berndt

The arrigo showcase reloaded—towards a sustainable link between 3D and semantics

It is still a big technical problem to establish a relation between a shape and its meaning in a sustainable way. We present a solution with a markup method that allows for labeling parts of a 3D object very much like labeling parts of a hypertext. A 3D markup can serve both as hyperlink and as link anchor, which is the key to bidirectional linking between 3D objects and Web documents. Our focus is on a sustainable 3D software infrastructure for application scenarios ranging from email and Internet over authoring and browsing semantic networks to interactive museum presentations. We demonstrate the workflow and the effectiveness of our tools by redoing the Arrigo 3D Showcase. We are working towards a best practice example for information modeling in cultural heritage.

The PROBADO project: approach and lessons learned in building a digital library system for heterogeneous non-textual documents

The PROBADO project is a research effort to develop and operate advanced Digital Library support for non-textual documents. The main goal is to contribute to all parts of the Digital Library work flow from content acquisition over indexing to search and presentation. While not limited in terms of supported document types, reference support is developed for classical digital music and 3D architectural models. In this paper, we review the overall goals, approaches taken, and lessons learned so far in a highly integrated effort of university researchers and library experts. We address the problem of technology transfer, aspects of repository compilation, and the problem of inter-domain retrieval. The experiences are relevant for other project efforts in the nontextual Digital Library domain.

A publishing workflow for cultural heritage artifacts from 3D-reconstruction to internet presentation

Publishing cultural heritage as 3D models with embedded annotations and additional information on the web is still a major challenge. This includes the acquisition of the digital 3D model, the authoring and editing of the additional information to be attached to the digital model as well as publishing it in a suitable format. These steps usually require very expensive hardware and software tools. Especially small museums cannot afford an expensive scanning campaign in order to generate the 3D models from the real artifacts. In this paper we propose an affordable publishing workflow from acquisition of the data to authoring and enriching it with the related metadata and information to finally publish it in a way suitable for access by means of a web browser over the internet. All parts of the workflow are based on open source solutions and free services.

3D modeling in a web browser to formulate content-based 3D queries

We present a framework for formulating domain-dependent 3D search queries suitable for content-based 3D search over the web. Users are typically not willing to spend much time to create a 3D query object. They expect to quickly see a result set in which they can navigate by further differentiating the query object. Our system innovates by using a streamlined parametric 3D modeling engine on both client and server side. Parametric tools have greater expressiveness, they allow shape manipulation through a few high-level parameters, as well as incremental assembly of query objects. Short command strings are sent from client to server to keep the query objects on both sides in sync. This reduces turnaround times and allows asynchronous updates of live result sets.

A scalable repository infrastructure for CH digital object management

In recent decades, researchers of archaeological 3D digitalization found that the collection and archive of processing intermediate data are extremely tiresome tasks. They need large of man power and material resources, even though, mistakes can be raised and break the whole working chain. The traditional documentation of digitalization process is also a pending challenge, although, the ISO standard CIDOC-CRM (ISO 21127:2006) has been introduced to the archaeologists and museum professionals since years, but there are still some obvious gaps between practice and theory: (1) How to connect the discrete archaeologists, museums, CH research institutions, and the public? (2) How to ensure the integrity of whole digitalization process and simplify the process? (3) How to maximize the usability of the public digital objects in CH community? (4) How to long term preserve the huge amount of datasets? (5) How to present and disseminate the digital object to the public? This paper presents an operational and optimal infrastructure that realizes not only a distributed storage system, but also a content management system. This infrastructure works as a backbone of whole digitalization process, provides a complete solution suite for archaeologists, museum professionals, museum visitors, and IT technicians.

A Repository Infrastructure for Working with 3D Assets in Cultural Heritage

The development of a European market for digital cultural heritage assets is impeded by the lack of a suitable digital marketplace, i.e., a commonly accepted exchange platform for digital assets. We have developed the technology for such a platform over the last two years: The 3D-COFORM Repository Infrastructure (RI) is a secure content management infrastructure for the distributed processing of large-volume datasets. Three of the key features of this system are (1) owners have complete control over their data, (2) binary data must have attached metadata, and (3) processing histories are documented. Our system can support the complete production pipeline for digital assets from data acquisition (photo, 3D scan) over processing (cleaning, hole filling) to interactive presentation and content delivery over the internet. In this paper we present the components of the system and their interplay. One particular focus of the software development was to make it as easy as possible to connect client-side applicat...

A scalable rendering framework for generative 3D content

Delivering high quality 3D content through a web browser is still a challenge especially when intellectual property (IP) protection is necessary. Thus, the transfer of 3D modeling information to a client should be avoided. In our work we present a solution to this problem by introducing a server-side rendering framework. Only images are transferred to the client, the actual 3D content is not delivered. By providing simple proxy geometry it is still possible to provide direct interaction on the client. Our framework incorporates the Generative Modeling Language (GML) for the description and rendering of generative content. It is then possible to not only interact with the 3D content, but to modify the actual shape within the possibilities of the generative content. By introducing a control layer and encapsulating processing and rendering of the generative content in a so called GML Rendering Unit (GRU) it is possible to provide a scalable rendering framework.

An enhanced distributed repository for working with 3d assets in cultural heritage

The development of a European market for digital cultural heritage assets is impeded by the lack of a suitable marketplace, i.e., a commonly accepted distributed exchange platform for digital assets. We have developed such a platform over the last two years, a centralized content management system with distributed storage capability and semantic query functionality. It supports the complete pipeline from data acquisition (photo, 3D scan) over processing (cleaning, hole filling) to interactive presentation, and allows collecting a complete process description (paradata) alongside. In this paper we present the components of the system and explain their interplay. Furthermore, we present and explain which functional components, from transactions to permission management, are needed to operate the system. Finally, we prove the suitability of the API and present a few software applications that use it.

Publishing 3D content as PDF in cultural heritage

Sharing 3D models with embedded annotations and additional information in a generally accessible way still is a major challange. Using 3D technology must become much easier, in particular in areas such as Cultural Heritage, where archeologists, art historians, and museum curators rely on robust, easy to use solutions. Sustainable exchange standards are vital since unlike in industry, no sophisticated PLM or PDM solutions are common in CH. To solve this problem we have examined the PDF file format and developed concepts and software for the exchange of annotated 3D models in a way that is not just comfortable but also sustainable. We show typical use cases for authoring and using PDF documents containing annotated 3D geometry. The resulting workflow is efficient and suitable for experienced users as well as for users working only with standard word processing tools and e-mail clients (plus, currently, Acrobat Pro Extended).

FO3D: formatting objects for PDF3D

3D is useful in many real-world applications beyond computer games. The efficiency of communication is greatly enhanced by combining interlinked verbal descriptions with 3D content. However, there is a wide gap between the great demand for 3D content and the inconvenience and cost of delivering it. We propose using PDF, which is extremely well supported by standard content production workflows. Producing PDF with embedded 3D is currently not an easy task. As a solution to the problem we offer a freely available tool that makes embedding 3D in PDF documents an easy to use technology. Our solution is very flexible, extensible, and can be easily integrated with existing document workflow technology.