QGIS 2.14 bug alert!

If you are using QGIS in archeology, almost probably you want also to produce georeferenced photomosaics, like we do with the "Metodo Aramus" technique (read the related post 1 and 2) and its further evolutions (check this post), which up to day  involves just Kate, QGIS and GIMP). This post is just to warn you that is currently present a bug in QGIS 2.14, so that the georeferencer tool does not work properly. In the screenshot below you can read the details of this bug (and check it at this link).

Screenshot form the official QGIS link (name and images removed for privacy reason)

My advice is to do not update QGIS to the version 2.14 until the bug will be fixed (which I guess will happen very soon).

Have a nice day!

PS

This post reminds e that I should record a new videotutorial with the updated and simplified version of the "Metodo Aramus" (Kate-QGIS-GIMP). I will do it ASAP!

Bibliography

The "Metodo Aramus" in described in English in this publication: 

Aramus Excavations and Field School. Experiences in Using, Developing, Teaching and Sharing  Free/Libre and Open Source Software (here in ResearchGate and here in Academia)

It has been used both in field excavations (e.g. in the case of this article:  "Mura Bastia". Dati archeologici, informatizzazione e rilievi 3D laser scanning del Castello degli Onigo (Pederobba, Treviso) and in archaeological finds documentation, as described by this article (in Italian) proposing a new methodology in this field:

Proposta per un metodo informatizzato di disegno archeologico (here in ReasearchGate, here in Academia)

The "Metodo Aramus" is part of the methodology we teach during our lessons in master and courses, as you can read in the report of one of this experience: 

Corso base di Free Software e Open Source in archeologia: bilancio di un'esperienza di divulgazione pratica (here in ReasearchGate, here in Academia)

Space archaeology

Per aspera ad astra

When you start a new research you know where your path begins, but you do not know where it will end (and where it will take you). 

As many of you knows, we work also with 3D printing of archaeological objects: here (1 and 2) is the two post +Leonardo Zampi wrote about the Taung Project and here is a post regarding some Augmented Reality applications, in one of which a 3D printed skull was used (look the first video).

Most of these experiments are connected with the open source exhibition "Facce. I molti volti della storia umana" (please, do not forget our crowdsourcing campaign: send us your images!). For this event, whose English title is "Faces. The many aspects of human history", we planned to used 3D printed objects for different Augmented Reality applications and to expand the accessibility to the digital exhibit for the visitors (reducing the restrictions connected with disability). This post reports an preliminary overview of the event (done during the European Academic Heritage Day 2013), in which are presented the main topics of the exhibition, the problems and the solutions we planned to apply (sorry, the slides are in Italian; I will translated the text ASAP).

Today, working on a new research for this exposition, I tested different possibilities to reconstruct a 3D from a unique image. Normally our (Arc-Team) work-flow starts with a 3D model obtained from Structure from Motion and Image-Based Modeling (using different software) or from x-ray Computer Tomography (like for the paleoart or mummiology projects), but in archeology can happen to use Single View Reconstruction techniques when there are no other solutions. This post of +Cícero Moraes is a good example of a reconstruction in Blender based on perspective and vanishing points. Of course this technique is optimized for architectural documentation of structures, but is almost unusable for more irregular objects. 

To avoid this problem I studied different possibilities and I decided to use the same software, Blender, but in a different way. I looked in internet for an archaeological picture that could meet my requirements: not too simple, but with a correct light exposition. My problem in finding a good base image comes from the fact that the archaeological artifact photography has codified rules and normally the light source is located in the upper-left corner, otherwise bas-relief (convex) would appear as counter-relief (concave) and vice versa (due to the Hollow-Face optical illusion).

After a while I found this image, which has an almost correct light exposition (sorry, I do not know anymore the source of the photo and I did not find informations about the author).

The base image

I modified the picture with GIMP, in order to obtain a grayscale photo, than I imported it in Blender.

The grayscale image

There I used the "displace" modifier and I automatically obtained a fast 3D of the object (of course nothing comparable with SfM and IBM technique, but enough for my SVR needs).

The displace modifier

After some additional smoothing operation in Blender (you can directly use the related modifier), the model was ready to be saved as an stl file, loaded in Cura and printed in 3D.

The stl file in Cura

At this point I was ready to adapt the entire process to my needs in order to work for the exhibition "Facce", but here is were my research took a complete different way.

On my desk was lying a local newspaper in which was a photo of the Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who is actually on board the International Space Station (ISS). Dr. Cristoforetti was born in Milano, but her family is originally form a town (Malé) very close to the one in which I live (Cles) and this is the reason why local press is following her scientific mission very closely. Reading the article I was thinking that it would be nice to print in 3D something that could be a tribute to her work and to the whole mission: something related with space exploration and archeology. Suddenly in my mind appeared a black and white picture, which probably most of you know and that dates back to July 20 1969, so I decided to test the process on this image and see the result.

I searched on the NASA website regarding the Apollo 11 mission and I found what I was looking for: the photo of the first footprints on the moon. I turned the picture into a grayscale image and I repeat the protocol of Single View Reconstruction with this data

The grayscale image

The video below shows all the work-flow and is a new videotutorial for the Digital Archaeological Documentation Project.

Of course the result has no metric, nor topographic value and it is more an artistic reconstruction than a 3D documentation, but this time it was just for fun and for a tribute to woman's contribution in space exploration. BTW on board the ISS astronauts are currently testing 3D printing in space (Made in Space).

If you want to print directly the .stl file I did, you can download it at this link. Otherwise in this post you can find all you need to do the process by yourself.

Have fun! 

QuantumGIS and OpenJump: Photomapping with more pictures (Corte Inferiore method)

Hi all,
i would like to share a new method to realize georeferenced 2D-photomosaic. Thanks to the new version of OpenJump (r3856), now it is possible to export the GIS-view to any kind of resolution (no more block to 3800 width-pixel). Just set in the oj_linux.sh file (OpenJump bin folder) the allowed memory in the line 24

JAVA_MAXMEM=${JAVA_MAXMEM--Xmx2048M}

with 2048M my computer can export GIS-view till the value of 6905 width-pixel. More memory gives more resolution.

This is the videotutorial:

and this an example:

Darcy's mysteries

After I reconstructed a face of a skeleton called Joaquim, placed in Medicine History Museum (MUHM),  I was invited to do other job for a skull that belonged to the same donator.

When I traveled to Porto Alegre to talk in a conference (FISL 14), I took the opportunity to know Joaquim, do a TV interview, and see the other skull.

In the first view I didn't see anything different on the structure of the skull. I took it in my hands to a room and I took some photos and make a 3D scanning.

I took pictures from top and bottom to make a complete 3D scanning with PPT-GUI.

When I saw the skull, I imagined that it belonged to a woman. To have more safety I sent the 3D mesh to Dr. Paulo Miamoto, a forensic specialist to make a report about the sex of the individual.

To my surprise, the report was inconclusive. The protocol have a range o 1 to 5. 1 is a lot woman, and 5 is a lot man, the result was 2,4!

We take the opinion of other specialists and a half told that was a woman, a half that was a man.

Because this ambiguity, we starts to call the skull with a Portuguese neutral name: Darcy.

This was one of the misteries, the other appeared during the 3D modeling.

In the video above we have the process of the reconstruction. Apparently it doesn't hane anithyng different with the shape of the face.

When I put the skin, I noted that in the area of the top of the head I had to decrease the volume a lot.

When we see the two mesh side-by-side, Joaquim (an little man at left) and Darcy (at right), we can see a notorious difference at the top of the head.

The skull was submitted to a neurologist to be analyzed.

I don't have any knowledge not even for speculate about the result. We have to wait.

I hope you enjoy.

A big hug and see you in the next!

Photomapping with Quantum GIS (Khovle method)

Hi everybody
Together with Alexamder Sachsenmaier and Alesandro Bezzi i found out a method to create a photomosaic just with QGIS. The problem was to export the single pictures in a good quality and in the size of the whole photomosaic not just the size of the single picture. But this works fine with the print composer of QGIS
So shortly:
1. edith the file of the ground control points to a .csv file
2. import the .csv file into QGIS (plugin is requiered)
3. change the design of the points
4. start the print composer and export the model with the points. Here its possible to set the dpi: e.g. for an area of 3x2m 500dpi gives a resolution of more or less 1mm
5. start the georeferencing plugin of QGIS and georeference the model
6. to export the wordfile from the geotiff of the model, type the following in the terminal
gdal_translate -co "TFW=YES" input_geotif.tif output_tif_tfw.tif
or open the model in OpenJUMP and close it again
7. georeference all the single pictures with QGIS
8. start the same print composer like the one for the model and export all single picures (dont move the pictures)
9. open the model in GIMP and import all single pictures as single layers
10. give the same name to the wordfile of the model and the photomosaic
Alessandro allready maked a videotutorial:

So, I hope this is helpful for somebody...

A skeleton of Medicine's History Museum have his face revealed

Some days ago I was looking for some skull to reconstruct and present in my talk on Blender in Brazil. The talk will happen in the FISL14, one of the greatest free software conference in the world.

Fortunately I received an email from the Medicine's History Museum of Rio Grande do Sul (MUHM), that needed a forensic facial reconstrucion.

The nickname of the skeleton is Joaquim. He was a prisoner that died like a indigent in France in 1920. In 2006 he was donated to the museum by a family of doctors.

I ordered a CT-Scan and the people of the museum sent me not only the head, but all Joaquim's body.

So, I'll reconstruct all the body, but for now only the head was done.

To reconstruct the bones in 3D I used InVesalius, a CT-Scan reader open source. It was necessary export some files with different configurations, because the amount of data is huge.

Like I said, in this first part of Joaquim Project I'll reconstruct only the face. In the Meshlab I cleaned the noise of 3D reconstruction of CT-Scan.

The skull was not complete. To get the mandible I made a projection using Sassouni/Krogman method shown in Karen T. Taylor's book.

With the help of forensic dentist Dr. Paulo Miamoto, we get the range of Joaquim's age: 30-50.

The tissue depth markers was put.

So it was possible to sketch the profile of the face.

 

 The muscles was glued at the skull.

 

 Finally, the skin, the cloth and the hair was put.

I don't know if Joaquim really was born in France, but he appear a French man.

Thanks to:
Éverton Quevedo and Letícia Castro from MUHM.

A big hug and I see you in the next!

The Faces of Evolution - Exhibition of hominids forensic facial reconstructions

May 18th through July 31st, 2013 will happen in the big and beautiful Curitiba city in Brazil, the exhibition The Faces of Evolution.

Near the replicas of skull of hominids will have nine panels with forensic facial reconstructions.

The exhibition will happen now, but the history started here in ATOR some months ago.

The methodology developed to model the majority of the faces was used for the very first time in Alberto di Trento's reconstruction.

On that occasion the Arc-Team presented a paper at the event Giovani Antropology (Italy), where they described the methodology for forensic facial reconstruction using only free software.

Following the events, we initiated Project Taung. If before we had rebuilt a modern human this time we would rebuild a hominid remote, then the Taung Child.

Beyond the Arc-Team Group, has joined the project Prof. Dr. Nicola Carrara University of Padua.

We were able to reconstruct the face of the Taung child fastly, thanks to a methodology developed previously.

We had a largely positive feedback, both personalities linked to forensic facial reconstruction, as those related to 3D modeling, as the creator of  Blender, Mr. Ton Roosendaal.

Several media outlets broadcasted stories (see the comments) on the reconstruction of the Taung child, as the Jornal de Brasilia above.

After the successful reconstruction of hominid remote, we got in touch with the archaeologist Prof. Dr. Moacir Elias Santos of the Archaeological Museum of Ponta Grossa and Prof. Esp. Vivian Tedardi of Rosicrucian and Egyptian Museum in Brazil and we began a series of modeling which culminated in the exhibition the Faces of Evolution, described here.

The Australopithecus afarensis.

The Homo erectus pekinensis.

The Cro-Magnon man.

The Turkana Boy.

The Homo heildelbergensis.

The Homo neanderthalensis.

The Homo habilis.

And last but not least, the Homo floresiensis.


This was a brief description of the exhibition and its history. Now, we expect the event date arrives, while others look for fossils to be rebuilt.

A big hug!