1. Feb. 10, 2010 Second Review Meeting
Archaeology & Cultural Heritage
Application Working Group
Manolis Vavalis, CERETETH
Marios Pitikakis, CERETETH
Chiara Catalano, CNR
Patrick Salamin, EPFL

2. 1st year AWG members
Alinari 24 ORE, Italy *
Arkaia srl, Italy
BK s.r.l., Italy
Centro Interdipartimentale di Servizi di Archeologia
– Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale, Italy
CRS4, Italy
Cultural Technologies, Jordan *
Cyprus Institute, Cyprus
European Virtual Engineering Technological Centre (EUVE), Spain
Foundation of the Hellenic World, Greece *
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, Germany
Giunti Labs S.r.l., Italy *
Institute of Computer Graphics, TU Graz, Austria
MellaniuM, UK
MUSEUM VOLKENKUNDE, The Netherlands
Sabanci University / Computer Graphics Laboratory, Turkey *
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Interactive Graphics Systems
Group, Germany
TELECOM, LIFL (UMR USTL/CNRS 8022), France
University of Patras – High Performance Information Systems
Laboratory, Greece *
University of Thessaly, Dept. Of History, Archaeology and Social
Anthropology, Greece
• Interested only
in A&CH AWG
• Interested in
multiple AWGs
• * Based on
existing contacts

3. 2nd year AWG new contacts
Geographic Information Visualization and Analysis, Department of Geography,
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Giusi Grimaudo, TESI Archeologia s.r.l, Italy
Mario Santana, Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation, Belgium
Marco Rendina, Centro per la Ricerca e lo Sviluppo di Metodologie e Applicazioni di
Archivi Storici, Italy
Breuckmann GmbH, Germany
Laura Baratin, University of Urbino, Italy
Nadezhda Ilyina, 3DreamTeam, Russia & Czech Republic
Riccardo Berta, ELIOS Lab, University of Genoa, Italy
Maria Economou, Dept. of Cultural Technology & Communication, Univ. of Aegean,
Greece
Stavroula Zoi, Multimedia-Hypermedia Lab, Athens School of Fine Arts, Greece
Livio De Luca, MAP-Gamsau Laboratory, CNRS, France
Communications Research Centre (CRC), Canada **
** Questionnaire submitted
Feb. 5, 2010

4. AWG members summary
Total AWG members: 30
Total 18 AWG members acquired in the 1st
year (6 based on existing contacts)
Total 12 AWG members acquired in the 2nd
year (all new contacts)

5. 2nd year activities
Thematic Workshop (organized by CERETETH
and IMATI)
Attended VSMM09
Workshop on “Serious Game in CH”
Approached the Underwater Archaeology
community (IMATI)
Collaboration with other EU projects:
3D-COFORM – Tools and Expertise for 3D
Collection Formation
PROBADO - Innovative Digital Library Services for
Nontextual Documents

6. Thematic Workshop - organization
The thematic workshop entitled “3D Knowledge
Technologies for Cultural Heritage Applications”
was held on 12 September 2009, Vienna, Austria, as a
half a day event in conjunction with the 15th
International Conference on Virtual Systems and
Multimedia - VSMM 2009.
An official workshop webpage was developed in the
FOCUS K3D portal and the workshop was also
advertised at the VSMM09 web pages.
Our position statements were circulated to the
workshop speakers before the event took place.
24 participants attended the workshop + 5 people from
FOCUS K3D partners (CERETETH, IMATI and EPFL).
Most participants came from academic and research
institutions.

7. Thematic Workshop - program
09:00 – 09:20 Introduction to the workshop : the FOCUS K3D initiative
(Michela Spagnuolo, IMATI)
09:20 – 9:40 3D-COFORM - Tools and Expertise for 3D Collection Formation
(Franco Niccolucci, STARC-Cyprus Institute)
09:40 – 10:20 Invited talk: The e-documentation of the Past in 3D: A
Challenge and a Risk for the Present and the Future (Marinos Ioannidis, EC &
STARC-Cyprus Institute)
10:20 – 10:40 Serious Games in Cultural Heritage Field (Riccardo Berta, ELIOS
Lab, University of Genoa)
10:55 – 11:15 Virtual Humans in Cultural Heritage projects (Patrick Salamin,
EPFL)
11:15 – 11:35 Integrating 3D digital technologies for CH: issues and
perspectives (Andrea D'Andrea, Franco Niccolucci)
11:35 – 12:05 A semantic-based framework for managing, searching and
retrieving 3D resources (Marios Pitikakis, CERETETH & Chiara Catalano, IMATI-CNR)
12:05 – 12:20 Knowledge technologies in Cultural Heritage (position statement)
(Manolis Vavalis, CERETETH & Univ. of Thessaly)
12:20 – 13:00 Open discussion

8. Thematic Workshop – position statements
Position statements summary:
3D digital representations are often neglected in efforts to
create large-scale libraries and there is also a lack in effort by
cultural heritage institutions to acquire and use knowledge about
3D content.
Whereas text and image digitization and management are rather
mature technologies, the technology necessary to fully benefit
from 3D knowledge management is not yet within easy reach of
most cultural institutions and professionals. A major challenge
towards semantic 3D data management is to provide effective
content-based and semantic-based organization and
searching.
Content organization is a fundamental service that first helps the
user to navigate and formulate queries. Moreover, it allows an
efficient retrieval of the content of interest, which could
strongly reduce a large amount of unproductive time.

9. Thematic Workshop – position statements
Current limitations are mostly related to the lack of specialized
tools for 3D knowledge management.
Open problems and future directions to promote and exploit
knowledge technologies for 3D content in the Cultural Heritage
and Archaeology domain could be focused on the following
challenges:
(a) Facilitate automatic semantic annotation of 3D digital
content;
(b) Enhancement of data repositories to exploit and reuse
semantic annotations;
(c) Intelligent discovery and retrieval of 3D models by
improving the efficiency of semantic search engines and
their integration with geometric search engines.

10. Thematic Workshop – outcomes
Initial contact has been made to directly participate
and contribute to the European Digital Library (EDL).
Had the opportunity to interact with people involved
with related fields like serious games, virtual
environments and simulations, and understand their
perspective.
The invited talks and the discussion revealed a number
of critical problems related to:
Acquisition and processing of 3D data
Traceability to sources and data provenance must be
guaranteed. An ontological approach could be a solution.
Not only geometry has to be acquired but also colours,
materials and the information related to the object have to
be preserved.
3D compression has to be addressed.

11. Thematic Workshop – outcomes
Documentation and annotation
The annotations attached to the objects’ geometry might be
lost when the geometry changes due to various reasons.
Preserving semantics in the process would be crucial.
Adopting a holistic approach to heritage documentation,
integrating text, 2D and 3D, requires an ontological
approach.
There is a management issue and conflict between
preservation and provenance.
The Semantic (3D-) Web and 3D TV has to be accessed also
through other devices, such as mobiles.
Watermarking has to be addressed.
Search and retrieval
Indexing and 3D Object Retrieval have to be addressed.

12. Thematic Workshop – outcomes
Visualization
Real time management of the 3D data representation and
visualization has to be treated, also considering the profile of
the users.
Different solutions to visualize documented information
gathered during the 3D model creation can be envisaged
(whether a model is created from scratch or
captured/digitized).
Standardization
There no consensus in the CH world on metadata standards.
It is necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness and viability
of “better” solutions.
In view of long-term preservation, there are many
proprietary data formats by hardware vendors.
The evolution in Standards for Metadata has to be combined
with the revolution in computer hardware and software.

13. Thematic Workshop – outcomes
General observations
The global feeling after the discussion was that the
audience was in agreement with our point of view
and our position statements.
Decision makers are not aware of the importance of
3D for Cultural Heritage. In addition, many of the
people involved in the domain are not aware of its
needs and 3D is often considered as a “gadget”.
The audience was not aware of our work in
AIM@SHAPE and the tools we developed to manage
3D semantic shapes (geometric and semantic
search engines, SR, TR etc), and they were
favourably surprised by their usefulness and
effectiveness.

14. Virtual exhibition scenario - motivation
Written in collaboration with an AWG member
(company called MellaniuM)
Based on their work in using game engines as a
solution for the accurate rendering of archaeological
reconstructions and museum exhibits.
Until the advent of the latest game engines (e.g.
UNREAL v2.5) and the wide acceptance of hardware
3D graphical acceleration video cards it was highly
impractical to produce virtual buildings and accessory
items with high polygon static meshes and photo-
realistic textures and 2D graphics which were not
subject to debilitating pixellation on close inspection.

15. Virtual exhibition scenario - motivation
The key to effective virtual realism, especially
for fields like archaeology and cultural heritage,
is the creation of an environment so well
conceived interpretively that the user becomes
emotionally involved in the content of the
simulation.
Users obviously desire to experience a design
that has been created in terms of lighting
effects, finishes, surface textures, layout and
construction details which will lend itself to a
complete suspension of disbelief.

16. (a) (b)
(c) (d)
Temple of Horus complex (courtesy of MellaniuM) (a) Courtyard near the Entrance to the Hypostyle Hall, (b) Passing
through the Hypostyle Hall, (c) Inside the Sanctuary, (d) A chariot outside the Temple of Horus complex

17. Virtual exhibition scenario - motivation
Museum applications in the future could be used in
combination with delivery client (e.g. like the Nortel
web.alive). It will be possible in the near future with
one URL web link click to enter along with up to 50
others to explore and learn about any ancient site or
virtual exhibit.

18. Geometry and Knowledge Synergy
The benefits of adding semantic information in the
different stages of the reconstruction and presentation
of an artifact or an entire virtual space are twofold.
From the modeler/creator of 3D content
perspective, re-creating an ancient artifact in 3D or
an ancient site (architectural space) is difficult and
time-consuming work.
3D reconstruction is a long design process based on
available data (pictures of the remains, archaeological
research drawings and maps, etc.)
close collaboration with archaeologists and historians (for
example a scanned artifact may be incomplete or damaged,
and needs to be reconstructed by applying rules like
repeating structures, symmetry or boundary conditions,
knowledge of similar artifacts etc.)

19. Geometry and Knowledge Synergy
In archaeology and cultural heritage, object semantics
is typically just as important as the actual geometry.
Thus, it is a key requirement to assign thematic
information to entire objects and to individual
geometric elements. This also makes it possible to
select, analyze or edit the geometry and the
appearance of objects based on semantic criteria.
The importation of high polygon models and rich object
textures is a key issue for creating the necessary
realism. It must be possible to assign aerial or close-
range imagery to the individual geometry elements and
ideally, the resulting texture information should also be
managed.

20. Geometry and Knowledge Synergy
Another perspective / area of interest is the
organization and presentation of archaeological and
cultural heritage content to virtual visitors. Developing
educational/training application scenarios and
environments which are visually complex and
information-rich are a very effective learning tool.
The overall experience of a student or virtual a tourist
is defined by the virtual reality representation / re-
creation. The idea of learning as an active, self-
directed, and context-dependent process (e.g. walking
around, admiring the ancient buildings, interacting with
objects etc.) can greatly contribute to gaining new
knowledge.

21. Geometry and Knowledge Synergy
Embedding semantic information and descriptive
metadata related to the original source, age, design
and existing knowledge on associated artifacts can be
connected effectively to any 3D item in the
environment and can contribute to the overall
experience.
By introducing small unobtrusive icons within the 3D
models, which can be approached on the screen, the
user will automatically be directed to other sources of
information (e.g. web pages, images, movies etc)
This type of semantic interactivity is vital to produce an
environment that will encompass both a truly
informative and a sensory experience resulting in an
academically accurate and effective educational space.

22. Vhuman crowd animation workflow
Motivation
Focus on the importance of populating virtual
environments with virtual humans and how
they can be created and animated.
Different steps to create a crowd of animated
avatars (virtual humans) in order to animate it
with a game engine.
The requirements and constraints while
working with crowds (avatar behavior, collision
avoidance, appearance, movement).

23. Step 1
Crowd Database:
import template (= skeleton + mesh + skinning +
textures & segmentationMaps)
CrowdEngine: generate walk cycles adapted to the
skeleton (1 cycle for each speed)
import other needed animation files (idle, facial,
etc)
CrowdEngine: generate billboards for each
animation posture (including all walk cycles…)
 test simulation

24. Step 1
Example billboard for one animation sequence

25. Step 2
Adding visual Variety1: static accessories (hats,
glasses,jewels,…):
modeling accessories meshes (1 or 2 levels of details)
 export accessories in collada format (.dae)
designing accessories variety texture and segmentationMaps
(4 per texture)
 .tga or .dds
setting color variety parameters for all segmentation maps
per texture
 custom .xml
3dsMax pos/orient/scale accessories to the template +
attach to corresponding joint + specify accessory type
 export attachment data = custom .txt file
import accessories & attachment data into Crowd Database
CrowdEngine: generate billboards for all accessories
(unless too small to be noticed at far distance)

26. Step 3
Adding visual Variety2: accessories with
specific arm posture (bags, boxes, anything
carried in hands…):
modeling & attachment of accessories = repeat 8.
Static accessories
specify joint rigidity (min/max) or clamp values
(min/max) for each arm joint
 custom .xml file (global for all templates)
re-import accessories with joint rigidity&clamp
data

27. Step 3

28. Step 4
Adding Animation Variety1:adding arm gestures
to walking (holding a mobile phone, hands in pocket,
etc):
3dsMax specifying IK sources and targets for left and/or
right hand
 export targets in custom .txt .tpo files
CrowdEngine: generate additional walk cycles with new IK
constraints (1 cycle per speed for each handIK)
CrowdEngine: generate billboards for each new animation
modeling & attachment of accessories if needed
(cellPhone,…) = repeat 8. Static accessories

29. Step 4

30. Step 5
Adding Animation Variety2: walk
diversity & emotional state:
add walking emotional state by specifying angular
variations on spine and arms (rigidity & clamp
values)
 custom .xml file
global behvior parameters: specifying % of vh for
each emotion with walk diversity AND with facial
animation
 custom .xml file

31. Step 5

32. Step 6
Crowd Simulation:
CrowdEngine: generate navigation graph
according to environment’s geometry (various
possible parameters)
add semantic information to navigation graph (by
vertexID or by area)
trigger ColorVariety & Accessories & Behavior
according to scenario (events, navigation graph’s
vertex, areas, semantic info of the environment,
etc etc)

33. Example scenarios: Automatic Identification
The model input is
processed for automated
annotation
A generic ontology is
available
The semantic analyzer
combines the results of
the annotations and
the ontology to input it
into the inference module
Semantic
Analyzer
Generic
ontology
Instances of
semantic
information
Automated
annotation
GUI
Instantiated
ontology
Inference

34. Open problems and future directions
A&CH 3D digital content is becoming more and more
demanding in terms of
management, preservation, delivery mechanisms…
3D A&CH content often is
hard to access and interpret
held in multiple internal systems
with non-standard schemas and descriptions.
The unavoidable manual annotation of explicit
semantics is not a practical approach
especially when the number of resources is expected to grow
fast.

35. Indicative Open Problems – Future directions
The technology necessary to fully benefit from 3D
knowledge management is not yet within easy reach of
most cultural institutions.
further progress in research and consolidation of approaches
is required in the area of 3D digital libraries.
Long-term preservation, re-use and access to 3D digital
objects are major concerns
the development of standardized metadata and ontologies
can partially ensure this.
Semantically enriched descriptions, indexing, and
retrieval will allow the deep integration of 3D content
into Digital Libraries.

36. Indicative Open Problems – Future directions
Current limitations are mostly related to the
lack of specialized tools for 3D knowledge
management and methodologies – as also our
questionnaire survey revealed.
Ensure access to 3D content through the
European Digital Library.
Develop solutions for improved re-use of 3D
datasets by end-users.
Developing easy-to-use authoring tools for 3D
knowledge management.

37. Open Problems – Future directions
There are number of research challenges that should
be addressed (as discussed in D1.4.1). These
challenges include:
Documenting provenance data
The need for 3D cultural repositories
Version control for 3D models
Digital rights management of artefacts
Mark-up language to associate 3D geometry to its
annotation
Workflow annotation
Long-Term Preservation of 3D Data