Computational Tools for Modeling, Visualizing and Analyzing Historic and Archaeological Sites

National Science Foundation Grant IIS-0121239

• Developing new methods of creating complex, three-dimensional, photo-realistic, interactive models of large historical and archaeological sites.
• Developing a system to create a new class of information visualization systems that integrate three-dimensional models, two dimensional images, text, and other web-based resources to annotate the physical environment. This system will support scientists in the field, as well as facilitate on-site interpretation and distance learning.
• Developing new database technology to catalogue and access a site's structures, artifacts, objects, and their context. This will significantly improve a user's ability to query and analyze a site's information.
• Developing methods and resources that will permit teachers and students to access the model and associated information over the Internet and to use it both in the classroom and at home. The goal is to allow flexible access on a variety of educational levels to a mass of emerging scientific and historic data to show how discovery and change are a part of both scientific and interpretive dynamic processes.

Publications

Activities

	France	Modeling the Cathedral of Ste. Pierre, Beauvais, France Video Tour of the Cathedral
	New York	Modeling Cathedral of St. John The Divine Site Information
	Sicily	Modeling Acropolis at Mt. Polizzo, Sicily Site Information
	South Africa	Modeling Thulamela Site Information
	Governors Island	Fort Jay Model
	Egypt	Excavations at Amheida, Egypt Panorama Modeling of Egyptian Site
	Archaeological Visualization	Collaborative Visualization of an Archaeological Excavation Cross-Dimensional Gestural Interaction
	Databases for Archaeology	ArchQuery:Columbia Faceted Database Query Engine
	Texture Mapping	Building illumination coherent 3D models of large-scale outdoor scenes
	France	Romanesque Church Database

Project Participants:

• Peter Allen Computer Science
• James Conlon Media Center for Art History, Archaeology, Preservation
• Steven Feiner Computer Science
• Lynn Meskell Anthropology
• Stephen Murray Art History and Archaeology
• Kenneth Ross Computer Science

Related Columbia Research

• Columbia Robotics Laboratory
• Columbia Computer Graphics and UI Lab

• Media Center for Art History

• Center for the Ancient Mediterranean

Contact: Peter Allen