Sander Münster

A Model Classification for Digital 3D Reconstruction in the Context of Humanities Research

Digital 3D reconstruction methods have been widely applied to support research and the presentation of historical objects since the 1990s. While technological backgrounds, project opportunities as well as methodological considerations for application are widely discussed in literature, a comprehensive, model classification for digital 3D reconstruction is still lacking. Against this background, this article aims to discuss common approaches to classification of scholarly work. The identification of specific issues and challenges in the context of humanities research is also discussed. A prototype classification scheme for digital reconstruction in humanities research is proposed. It has been applied to and tested in two case studies.

A scientific community of digital heritage in time and space.

While both methodological discussions and proofs of concept including smaller samples were part of former publications, this paper presents first results from a bibliometric investigation of a large scale sample of more than 3,000 articles from major conferences dealing with digital heritage and covering the past two decades. This paper presents preliminary results from an investigation of nationalities of contributors, cross-national authorships, funding opportunities, as well as relevant topics and their evolution over time. Moreover, several discourse leading persons and institutions have been identified.

Beyond Software. Design Implications for Virtual Libraries and Platforms for Cultural Heritage from Practical Findings

3D reconstructions of passed or altered as well as 3D constructions of never existent historic artefacts, in brief intangible artefacts, are likewise results and subjects of complex socio-technical interaction. Consequently, virtual libraries and platforms supporting 3D reconstruction projects have to meet technical requirements dedicated to creation and interoperation in the same time as they have to track individual workflows and to assist scientific customs and cooperation strategies. Based on observations from various 3D reconstruction projects, this article will highlight typical phenomena and practical strategies related to data and knowledge management and suggest implications for a design of virtual libraries and platforms.

Educational App Creation for the Cathedral in Freiberg

This project seminar aims at creating and evaluating a manual for interdisciplinary projects as part of a learning process. Working together, pedagogues and students from different disciplines within the humanities and sciences of different universities assess tools and recommendations for successful collaborations while developing an app for the visitors of the cathedral in Freiberg. As part of the project, the students gain expertise in project management and apply their theoretical knowledge to a real object and assignment. The introduction to techniques from other disciplines as well as the requirements needed to create an app for users unfamiliar with the cathedral and basic principles of art history and linguistics is a true challenge which complicates their work for the app. The seminar provides an option for students to gain practical experience before entering the job market. The outcomes and contributions serve as a reference. The results of the project seminar and the manual may be assigned to other interdisciplinary projects.

3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage II

Digital 3D reconstruction methods have been widely applied to support research and the presentation of historical objects since the 1990s. While technological backgrounds, project opportunities as well as methodological considerations for application are widely discussed in literature, a comprehensive, model classification for digital 3D reconstruction is still lacking. Against this background, this article aims to discuss common approaches to classification of scholarly work. The identification of specific issues and challenges in the context of humanities research is also discussed. A prototype classification scheme for digital reconstruction in humanities research is proposed. It has been applied to and tested in two case studies.

How to involve inhabitants in urban design planning by using digital tools? An overview on a state of the art, key challenges and promising approaches

Abstract Different cases of public disagreement in different European countries have shown recently that perusing a thorough planning process is by no means a guarantee for a broad public acceptance of an envisioned urban project. Consequently, the employment of digital media and tools to enable participation of inhabitants in urban planning processes on a massive scale is a promising, but currently not comprehensively analyzed approach. Our research activities are intended to gain an overview on a state of the art of research on communication channels, methods and best practices as well as to identify key challenges and promising strategies and tools to overcome these challenges with specific regards to large numbers of users and digital supported approaches. The latter aspects comprise the investigation of phenomena like participant selection, framing effects and gamified approaches for digital-mediated participatory processes as well as native language processing techniques to examine opinions as well as ideas of relevance from massive public feedback. To examine, we performed literature reviews of several hundred research articles, investigated cases in Germany, France and the Netherlands by interviews and workshops with stakeholders and employed methods of prototyping to conceptualize, develop and assess some promising approaches such as sentiment analysis in detail.

Virtual Reconstruction of Historical Architecture as Media for Knowledge Representation

3D reconstructions have always been an important medium for teaching, illustrating and researching historical facts and items, especially architecture. While 3D reconstructions in academic contexts aim at an accurate virtual representation of a historic original, various knowledge communication effects influence a creation and understanding of virtual representations. From a temporal point of view, architecture usually lasts beyond a human lifespan, and concepts, ideas and messages of deceased builders are available only via sources—either through the architectural object itself or by descriptions or depictions of it. While a creational process of virtual representation is often performed by cross-disciplinary workgroups, an exchange of knowledge between involved individuals is characterised by the need for a synchronisation of personal mental models and organisational and cooperational learning. Moreover, architectural representations address a wide and heterogeneous audience. All described processes are highly supported by visual media, such as images, virtual models or the architectural object itself. To explore knowledge-related phenomena, the authors performed four stages of investigation using qualitative and quantitative research methods. While a first research stage focuses on the scope and overall relevance of virtual architecture within the field of digital heritage, a second stage investigates phenomena due to a creation of virtual architectural representations. A third stage examines how skills and competencies for creating virtual architectural representations evolve during a project and if teaching facilitates the development. Finally, a fourth stage evaluates design approaches for virtual building representations to make them comprehensible for an audience.

First Experiences of Applying a Model Classification for Digital 3D Reconstruction in the Context of Humanities Research

While technological backgrounds, project opportunities, and methodological considerations for application are widely discussed, there is still no comprehensive classification scheme for digital 3D reconstruction in humanities research projects. Therefore we developed a prototype scheme in 2016. In this article we present the first results of applying this scheme and classifying five projects. Within this application we tested for intercoder reliability and for potential weaknesses of the scheme. While the reliability of the proposed scheme is generally good for categories with discrete values, qualitative categories result in highly differing coding.

Cultural Heritage in a Spatial Context – Towards an Integrative, Interoperable, and Participatory Data and Information Management

The authors discuss a concept for a comprehensive three dimensional cultural heritage (CH) information architecture including a time component that takes geographic space as the dominant organizing, presentation and exploration principle. Activities concerning a complex, decentralized information architecture with a cooperative component have only recently gained full relevance since they rely on new achievements. We name three such achievements: fast and user-friendly 3D reconstruction technologies, web-based 3D visualization within standard browsers, and emerging maturity and usage of volunteered geo-content, which is built from vector data, photo collections and 3D models. Achieving more than academic ephemera requires overcoming key problems associated with interoperation, spatial disparities of knowledge, object referencing, data volumes, abstraction, or object lifetime, to name only a few. Reliable and comprehensive solutions will perform well as upcoming business models. Full accounts of the state of the art of all mentioned key issues cannot be given (each of them justifies its own paper). Nor can fully developed solutions or approaches be offered in all cases. At least, a structured compilation of ideas on versatile and practical CH management architecture may provide incentives for future developments.

Creating Suitable Tools for Art and Architectural Research with Historic Media Repositories

Due to the ongoing digitization, digital libraries are used more and more by art and architectural historians. Nevertheless, the design of those platforms does not necessarily meet the expectations and user requirements of the scholars. This is especially valid for digital libraries dedicated to historic media such as photography. In this article, we aim to analyze the user community in a first step, in order to see from which fields of interest they come and how far developed their computer affinity is. In a second step, the user requirements of the scholars will be examined, specifically with regard to research questions of architectural history. Based upon those observations, in a third part a possible technical solution will be proposed that could facilitate the work with digital libraries as well as the research process. A case study on the question of the correlation between urban development and the perception of the city will give a further validation of the analytical parts, showing the deficits of yet existing digital libraries and highlighting starting points of further research support.