1. A Web Community for
Digitising Cultural Heritage Assets
Andrew Wilson
Bangor University
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2. Outline
• Context of the project
− Overview
− What kind of heritage?
• Challenges facing archaeologists
• HeritageTogether
− Photogrammetry
− Crowdsourcing
− HeritageTogether pipeline
• Engaging the public
• Engaging the academics
• Future work
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3. Overview
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“HeritageTogether is a project that aims to create 3D
models of megalithic monuments (such as standing stones
and burial chambers) in Wales, UK, from crowd-sourced
images. Members of the public upload their photographs
of the sites to the project website. Models are created
using an open source Structure-from-Motion (SfM) work
flow”

4. Overview
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What kind of heritage?

5. Standing Stones
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6. Cairns
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7. Dolmens
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8. Passage Graves
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9. Challenges facing Archaeologists
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• Sites under threat from
– Weather
– Changes in climate
– Urban development
• Time to survey sites
– Takes many hours for each site
• Number of sites to survey
– Over 2,500 sites identified in Wales

10. Recording Sites
• Traditional Recording
– Hand-drawn plans
– Measurements
• A Digital Record
– Photographs
– Total Station
– GPS
– Photogrammetry
– Laser scanning
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11. Photogrammmetry
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12. Photogrammmetry
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13. Crowdsourceing
Can the general public help?
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14. Crowdsourced 3D Modelling
They upload their photographs of a site,
we process the model and make it available on the website
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15. Crowdsourced 3D Modelling
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+ more…
1. A series of photographs
2. Sparse point cloud
Keypoints
identified
using SIFT
Camera position and
pose estimated using a
sparse bundle
adjustment system
CMVS breaks
data into
clusters
3. Dense point cloud
PMVS2 uses camera
positions to
approximate 3D
structure

16. Crowdsourced 3D Modelling
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3. Dense point cloud
4. Mesh
5. Textured Model
Poisson Surface Reconstruction
Texture created from blend
of original images

17. Getting the Models Online
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5. Textured Model
Quadric Edge Collapse
Decimation
Export X3D
X3DOM on webpage
6. Models in Browser

20. Engaging the Academics
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21. Engaging the Academics

22. Engaging the Public
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Exhibitions
Tangible
Models
Open Days
Demonstrations
Workshops

23. Future Work
• Methods of improving the processing
• Analysis of the models
– Classification based on shape
– Extraction of data from models
• Tools for archaeologists
– Analysis of rock art and site information
– Compare sites
• Tools for the public
– Analyse maps and site information 23

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A Web Community for Digitising Cultural Heritage Assets
Thank you!