Data sharing (Vervò webgis)

One of the main topics during the workshop in Ferrara concerned "open data", and particularly we talked about the problems in data sharing. It looks like that in the last years the the situation did not change very much (at least in Italy): archaeological discussion and research inside the scientific community are still slowed by the difficulties of official institutions in data release (for many different reasons, not least of which a general climate of suspicion between archaeologists).
Anyway, according to our past experiences, we have to say that we were quite lucky, finding often (in our institutional partners) people who did not underestimate the problem and allowed us to share archaeological data in specific project. The media we normally chose for this purpose is the webgis.
The image belows regards one of this projects, oriented to archaeological research and conservation in a small area (the territory of Vervò, in north-west Trentino, Italy).

 
The webgis was developed in 2009 by Giuseppe Naponiello using entirely Free and Open Source Software (soon Giuseppe will write a post with more technical information about it); the data come from the research of Alessandro Bezzi and are released with a Creative Commons license. The project was possible thanks to Dr. Nicoletta Pisu of the "Soprintendenza per i Beni Librari Archivistici e ArcheoLogici di Trento".
Actually you can visulize the webgis here.

Gnewarchaeology, a successful workshop

Just a fast report from the workshop "Gnewarchaeology" in Ferrara (see the previous post): the meeting was a success, both for the quality of the presentations and for the discussion. It was a good chance to share ideas and remark the importance to use FLOSS in archaeological research. Soon we will upload our slides. In the meantime we want to thank the organizers (especially Domenico Giusti) for the great job they did.

3D PDF for archaeology

Today I am preparing the presentation for the meeting in Ferrara (see the previous post), so I did some experiments with 3D PDF. I think this kind of documentation has good potentialities in archaeology. To test them I took some old data (the 3D skull done with Sfm and IBM techniques), I build the surface in Meshlab and with the same software I saved an u3d file. Then, with the help of Kyle, I wrote a (very) simple 3d document. The result is the image below. As you can see, to visualize my 3d PDF I had to virtualize Windows inside my VritualBox and run Adobe Reader. Up to now I did not find a pdf reader for Linux which is able to visualize u3d, so if you know one, please let me know...

Anyway, if you want to visualize the result, you can download the file here.

Voxel for archaeology

This video regards a pretty old experiment we did in 2006 to understand the possibility of volumetric graphic (voxel) in archaeology. The data came from my thesis (University of Padua, professor G. Leonardi) and were elaborated inside GRASS. The 3d surfaces of top and bottom interfaces of one layer were imported into the GIS to produce a volumetric representation. This was possible thanks to the effort of Soeren Gebbert, who wrote a script to export the voxel from GRASS into a VTK file (which we loaded in ParaView). At the and of the experiment we had a complete virtual representation of the archaeological record (a destroyed burial connected with incineration practices). This "digital copy" was composed by two 3d raster surfaces (top and bottom), one volumetric reconstruction of the layer (voxel) and a lot of 3d vector levels of the finds (fragment of burned human bones, pottery and bronze). Below you can see a picture of the situation before a started to dig.

UAVP indoor flight

Just a fast comment about our experience with the UAVP. If you want to try to build your own DIY flying drone, do not underestimate (like we did...) the time you will need to practice with it and to become a good pilot. The whole project will take you through 4 steps:

1. build the frame (simple)
2. connect the electronic components (not so simple, you will need experience in soldering)
3. program the UAVP (to find the right configuration for your drone)
4. learn to fly (difficult)  

Anyway the last step is also the most fun! Just remember that there are different flying conditions (wind, outdoor, indoor) and it is better to practice with most of them. In the video below, you can see our first indoor flight (pretty different from outdoor open spaces).

Python Photogrammetry Toolbox for Windows 64bit

After a report of some problems about installing Python Photogrammetry Toolbox on a Windows 64bit machine, i tried to do some test on it. Finally i found the error inside a python script (RunCMVS.py). The error was reported to the developer of the software (Pierre Moulon) and he will change the original packake as soon as possible. In the meantime there is a small installation instruction to correct the error at this link.

Which GIS? gvSIG

To tell the truth, i don't use very often gvSIG. Anyway it is for sure one of the software which has evolved faster since its first inclusion in ArcheOS. Moreover the program is pretty similar to ESRI GIS, so it is perfect to help new users of FLOSS (people for whom a direct migration form ArcGIS to GRASS could be traumatic). An other important aspect is that gvSIG is maybe the GIS in ArcheOS which has the easiest (and most functional) tool to get direct layouts, so if you settle for basic maps (without to many complications) this is probably your software. In the image below you can see an example of layout model, done with an old version of gvSIG.