Computer Graphics Techniques for Analysis
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 10/06/2015

For the past two decades there has been extensive work using computer graphics in cultural heritage. The field of computer graphics offers powerful techniques for communication and documentation.  Public communication is still the major use of computer graphics, with still images, movies and interactive displays being used to render views of the past to modern audiences. In the area of documentation, computer graphics researchers have contributed to the development of 3D scanning techniques and novel imaging approaches such as reflectance transformation imaging. In the course of pursing these applications however, researchers have found that computer graphics techniques can be used for analysis as well. Several types of analysis will be presented including understanding material properties and shape to inform physical conservation, understanding how artifacts were manufactured, and understanding how artifacts were meant to be viewed and used. Examples will be drawn from the speakers projects at IBM and at Yale, as well as from other computer graphics projects from around the world. Open challenges such as organizing massive visual collections associated with an archaeological site will be described.