Petroglyph digitization: enabling cultural heritage scholarship

George V. Landon and W. Brent Seales, “Petroglyph digitization: enabling cultural heritage scholarship,” Machine Vision and Applications, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 361–371, December 2006.

Abstract:
The digitization of antiquities is facilitating a renaissance for scholars who have unprecedented access to rich representations of objects. Cultural Heritage digitization is a central challenge, and its subtleties are intertwined with object properties and the constraints of physical access and handling. In this paper, we present the design and analysis of a system built for the digitization of Puerto Rican petroglyphic iconography. The petroglyphs exhibit unique properties (shape, size, surface) that determine system design choices. The 3D models obtained with the system support new scholarly and educational activities, including interactive surface lighting, feature highlighting and annotation through mark-up, and immersive viewing using large-scale displays.

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Geometric and Photometric Restoration of Distorted Documents

Mingxuan Sun, Ruigang Yang, Yun Lin, George V. Landon, W. Brent Seales, Michael S. Brown, "Geometric and Photometric Restoration of Distorted Documents," in Proceedings of the 10th IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision, vol. 2, October 2005, pp. 1117– 1123.

Abstract:
We present a system to restore the 2D content printed on distorted documents. Our system works by acquiring a 3D scan of the document’s surface together with a high-resolution image. Using the 3D surface information and the 2D image, we can ameliorate unwanted surface distortion and effects from non-uniform illumination. Our system can process arbitrary geometric distortions, not requiring any pre-assumed parametric models for the document’s geometry. The illumination correction uses the 3D shape to distinguish content edges from illumination edges to recover the 2D content’s reflectance image while making no assumptions about light sources and their positions. Results are shown for real objects, demonstrating a complete framework capable of restoring geometric and photometric artifacts on distorted documents.

Building and Visualizing 3D Textured Models for Caribbean Petroglyphs

George V. Landon and W. Brent Seales. Building and Visualizing 3D Textured Models for Caribbean Petroglyphs. In 21st Congress of The International Association of Caribbean Archaeology (Trinidad and Tobago), July 2005.

Abstract:
We present a system for building and visualizing 3D textured models of Caribbean petroglyphs. Through a collaboration with the Instituto de Cultura Puertorrique~na, we show reconstructions of petroglyphs located at the Taino ceremonial center at Caguana, Puerto Rico. Our methods allow digital access to and preservation of objects located in remote areas that remain unprotected from the elements. Our approach creates 3D textured models and allows users to intuitively visualize subtle aspects of petroglyphic art, such as dimension, texturing, and application of synthetic lighting, that are not possible without the digital model. We discuss the performance of these methods in practice and show resulting high-resolution 3D scans of Taino petroglyphs. We believe these techniques can be useful in promoting access, scholarship and in fostering preservation for artifacts that are inaccessible and obscure.

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The Museum and the Media Divide

W. Brent Seales and George V. Landon, "The Museum and the Media Divide: Building and Using Digital Collections at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena," in D-Lib Magazine, vol 11, May 2005.

Abstract:
By digitizing physical holdings, museums have an important opportunity to provide patrons unprecedented access to manifold media. Digitization of existing collections, which is the museum's form of the content creation problem, is a crucial and technically challenging step in continuing to narrow the digital divide between the patron's desire for rich multi-media information and what the museum actually provides. We present a case study of the issues involved in executing a digital content creation program in partnership with the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena. We focus on the challenges involved in acquiring, organizing and accessing the collections to make them meaningfully available within typical budgetary and technical constraints.

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