An experiment in flotation soil sample

Yesterday we start the flotation of soil samples of a prehistorical site. We used a hand-made machine developed and built by our friend Simone Pedron of Studio Sestante. Soon we will post some ideas to improve the system.

The picture below shows a phase of the process.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tux 2007, licensed by Klowner.com, Creative Commons 3.0 (BY-NC-SA)

Stereoscopy in ArcheOS

Yesterday I received an e-mail asking if it is possible to visualize in ArcheOS stereoscopic image pair.
I worked a little with this kind of technique (e.g. stereophotogrammetry) and also in my thesis I used a related methodology ("Necropoli del Piovego: scavo e documentazione informatica delle tombe 71 e U.F.C. 2", 2003 University of Padua, supervisors Giovanni Leonardi and  Michele Cupitò).
For instance in the image below you can see a comparison between a DEM (Digital Elevation Model) done taking the measurement manually (with the help of a grid) and the same surface done with photogrammetric stereo-reconstruction (for that project I used ERDAS IMAGE software). Of course the model I did manually is too regular to represent reality.

And this is the instrument I used for the left model (thanks to the help of Denis Francisci)

To visualize stereo photo pairs in my thesis I just used anaglyph images (red - cyan), like the one you see here:

In the same way of NASA rover Spirit :)

Image credits: NASA, PL-Caltech, Cornell University public domain 

To do anaglyph images I simply used GIMP (which is inside ArcheOS, of course). There are a lot of tutorials about this topic (e.g. this one), so I do not describe here the whole process. Moreover there is also a specific GIMP script (script-fu-make-anaglyph), which we could consider to add in ArcheOS GIMP package (for next release).

Anyway, I guess that the question I received about how to visualize stereoscopic image pairs in ArcheOS was related with something more technical than a simple anaglyph. The best solution (IMHO) is to use efoto, a complete suite for aerial stereophotogrammetry, composed by different modules. Inside ArcheOS all these modules are available from the menu "Photogrammetry".
With this software (developed in Brazil) it is possible to perform a complete aerial photogrammetry project, from internal orientation of the camera, till 3D data extraction from stereo photo-pairs. Normally it is better to complete all the steps of a project (also in this case there are some tutorials), but the module "Stereoplotter" can be simply use to visualize the image pairs, both in stereo and in anaglyph way. The images below are two screenshots I did with the default test data (which you can download with efoto). For soccer fans: In the right corner you can see the Maracanà (Rio de Janeiro)!

Stereoplotter: stereo vision

Stereoplotter: anaglyph vision

Import data inside VTerrain

Hi all,

yesterday I imported some data (DEM of Non Valley, Trentino - Italy) inside VTerrain. The screenshot below show the result.

The process is pretty simple and it is well describeb in this tutorial.

VTBuilder can convert many kind of data to a BT file, which is needed by the software.

ArcheOS new release codename

Hi all,
today we started a discussion about next steps in ArcheOS 4 (codename Caesar) development. Unfortunately by now the discussion is just in the Italian mailing list. Anyway one of the milestones we defined is the choice of the codename for the next release. Here you can participate to the vote for the new name. By now we have the following competitors:

King Theodoric

Queen Semiramis

St. Joan of Arc

Queen Nefertari

Queen Nefertiti

King Tamara     

Pharaoh Hatshepsut

As you see, to balance the female quotas in ArcheOS, we have six female candidate and just one men (by now). Let us know who is your favorite! (Hurry up, You can vote until December 31, 2011!)

PS
If you want to propose new names, just write an email in the Italian or English ArcheOS mailing list.

QGIS and Virtual Terrain Project

Yesterday I worked a little bit with Alessandro Bezzi to compile  the source code of Virtual Terrian Project inside ArcheOS 4. This operation was pretty simple, thanks to the instruction written by Roberto (BobMax) in his blog, and everything worked good. Than we tried to combine QGIS and VTP with the script Roberto wrote and, also in this case, we were lucky: to run the software it was necessary just a small correction inside the source code of the python script (a wrong path to the binary executable of Enviro). By now on we can work to build the deb package for ArcheOS, but we still have to clarify some points (especially regarding all the libraries connected with VTP). Anyway i think that, with the help of Roberto, we can package an optimized version of the software, to run with QGIS.
Here is a screenshot of QGIS and VTP with some example data (Hawaii Maui Island).

Lund University lessons (slide)

Today I uploaded on Arc-Team's Open Library the slides of a lessons I did with Alessandro Bezzi in Lund University (SE) in March 2011 (the lessons were possible thanks to the effort of Nicolò Dell'unto). The topic regards computational archaeology and it is maybe a "theory lesson", but it can be also useful to have an overview of what it is possible to do with FLOSS in archaeology (and in particular with ArcheOS). Below you see a couple of slides from this lesson.

v.out.labpoints

In www.uselessarchaeology.it you can find theoretical and practical research topics of archaeological methodology. In the last days I added a section of GRASS scripting.

In this section is now downloadable a new GRASS script for exporting a georeferenced raster image of labeled points: v.out.labpoints. It is useful for image rectification through raster model, e.g. using E-Foto in "Aramus" documentation method (see https://wiki.uibk.ac.at/confluence/display/excavationtutor/creazione_fotomosaici). This script enable users to speed the rectification process joining several steps just in one command.

The usage is described in the web page and in the script file. In the next days I'll posted a simple tutorial with an example.

Script (and its name as well) is under construction. It must be developed in order to change variables through shell commands without opening the script file. Moreover need to build a GRASS GUI for this script. In future, the developed script could be add to ArcheOS.

Any contribution or suggestion are welcome.

QGIS python plugins: call for suggestions!

Since a couple of day we are working on QGIS in ArcheOS. As you can read in ArcheOS official blog Fabrizio Furnari is already testing GFOSS repository to add an updated version (1.7) of QGIS (actually ArcheOS 4 alpha support QGIS 1.4). By the way we are also considering to add some plugins by default inside the software; by now we would like to add:

PyArcInit (http://www.pyarchinit.altervista.org/), an archaeological plugin

CADtools (http://www.catais.org/qgis/cadtools/), to improve QGIS potentialities in vector drawing

VTerrain (http://exporttocanoma.blogspot.com/), to provide a solid 3D module to QGIS, thank to Virtual Terrain Project (http://vterrain.org/)

If you now other plugins which will be useful in archaeology, please advise us by writing in one of the official ArcheOS Mailing List:

IT: http://lists.linux.it/listinfo/archeos

EN: http://lists.linux.it/listinfo/archeos-dev

... or simply  by replying to this post

In the image below you can see, for instance, the CADtools plugin

  

stippler-gui

Today I received an email from Giuseppe Amatulli, who is interested in the techniques we used for the automatic archaeological drawing. I hope we can work together to optimize this techniques, maybe integrating most of the steps of the workflow in a single software (GRASS?). Anyway he was also interested, of course, in the source code of the software we used, so I noticed that we never uploaded the software "stippler-gui", the graphical user interface for stippler which Alessandro Bezzi wrote. In the meantime I prepared a fast page in our website, where is also possible to download the source code (released under GPL). As an alternative you can download it in the brand new github public repository.

ArcheOS tutorial updated (transforming coordinates into GIS shapes)

In 2006, after our experience during the Aramus Excavations and Field Shool, we started a project to write documentation about Archeos. The project was possible thanks to the effort of the Institut fuer Alte Geschichte und Altorientalistik of Innsbruck University (Willfrid Allinger-Csollic, Sandra Heinsch and Walter Kuntner) and it is based on a wiki system (dokuwiki). Its aim consists in sharing the know-how in computational archaeology, starting from the lessons we (Arc-Team) do every year during the excavation in Aramus. All the contributes are written in the form of tutorials and released with an open license (generally FDL). Any help from the community is welcome (updates, review, etc...), especially new documents from new authors!
After the release of ArcheOS 4, most of the tutorial  will need updates and today i started with the document "Transforming coordinates into GIS shapes" which explain how to convert raw data from total station into basic geometries for GIS (in this case OpenJUMP). The tutorial is available here. I hope to update soon the next one ("Photomapping (metodo Aramus)").

More info about the archaeological automatic drawing technique

Yesterday I was looking the statistics regarding this blog and I noticed that one of the most popular post is the one about the automatic drawing technique we (Alessandro Bezzi, Simone Cavalieri and me) proposed some years ago. I noticed as well that i forgot to upload in Arc-Team's open library the presentation we did in Foggia (for ArcheoFOSS 5) about this argument (sorry, just in Italian by now...). Now the link is active and you can download the presentation here, or in Academia.edu.
As the slides are in Italian I summarize here the experiment we did in that occasion. We divided archaeological finds in four classes, looking which kind of documentation normally they need.

1) photographic documentation (e.g coins)
2) simple drawing (e.g. flint)
3) drawing + shading (e.g. normal artefacts)
4) drawing + shading + section (e.g. pottery)


Then we developed a five steps techniques to get the appropriate documentation for each class in a automatic or semi-automatic way (using only FLOSS, of course):

1. rectified photo (GRASS - efoto)
2. rectified photo + vector drawing (GRASS - efoto -OpenJUMP)
3. rectified photo + vector drawing + shading (GRASS - efoto -OpenJUMP - stippler -  Inkscape)
4. rectified photo + vector drawing + shading + section (GRASS - efoto -OpenJUMP - stippler - Inkscape - hardware)

Here is an image with the original picture of the archaeological finds we used as test and the final layout.

All the finds come from the excavation in the church of S. Andrea in Storo (TN - Italy) and gave us positive results (I just used to many points in stippler for the drawing of the pottery... anyway it is now easy to change this parameter with the new python interface Alessandro developed).

In the slides you will also find our first test on Lena picture:

The image has nothing to do with sexism, she is just o kind of standard since 70's for raster images tests... by the way she is beautiful :)

2016-04-28 Post updated

In 2010 we wrote an article (in Italian) about this technique:

"Proposta per un metodo informatizzato di disegno archeologico" (here in ResearchGate and here in Academia).

Presentation of ArcheOS 4 (Gnewarchaeology)

I just uploaded in Arc-Team's open library the presentation of ArcheOS 4, done during the workshop Gnewarchaeology in Ferrara (see the previous post). You can download it here. Although some images are a bit old, they provides a fast overview of ArcheOS 4 potentialities.
Soon i will upload the slides of the other presentation we did ("The evolution of anthropological research from a Free and Open Source point of view").

DXF in GRASS (v.in.dxf)

I got some emails regarding problems some users have found trying to import a dxf in GRASS, so i think it is better to do a new post about this topic.
At this page you can find the image below, which shows our first attempt to import a 3D object modeled in Blender inside GRASS through the DXF file format (and i have to say that without the help of Markus Neteler it would not have been successful).

It regards pretty old data from my thesis (2006) and the object is not really complex (just a simple solid of revolution).
When i tried again to import a 3D object inside GRASS i wanted to choose a more difficult test, so i planned to start some experiments with a human skeleton (the one you can see in the image below) and i exported the model from Blender in a dxf file...

... but when i tried to import it in GRASS i could not even recognize its shape inside Map Display. To understand what happened i decide to import again the model inside Blender, to try at least to visualize it and check if everything was in order, and this was what the software showed me:

When i saw the result i could not stop laughing for some minuets, but finally i found out there were some problems with the dxf file.
After this experience, when i want to export a dxf file from Blender and import it in GRASS i "clean it" before with MeshLab, because i discovered that MeshLab exports a dxf file more readable for GRASS parameters.
If you want to try, you can download this blender file. It is the GRASS logo, which i modeled in Blender, as you can see in this image.

You should load the file in Blender, export it as a ply, import it in MeshLab...

... export it in a dxf and import it in GRASS (v.in.dxf), like in the image below

I hope this post was useful, if are still problems just reply with a post or send me an email.

3D vector GIS with complex models

One of the last experiments we did regards the possibility to use a 3D graphic suite (Blender) to build 3D complex models, connect them to a database (PostgreSQL/Postgis) and visualize them inside a GIS (GRASS).
The image below is an example of the workflow:

1. 3D documentation of an archaeological record (in this case a grave)
2. 3D modeling of all the elements (artifacts and ecofacts) of the archaeological record (in this experiment just the skeleton)
3. visualization inside the GIS of the 3D components of the archaeological record, connected with a DB

Actually we are following two different ways:

1. build the model inside Blender, import the model in PostgreSQL/Postgis, connect GRASS and Postgres, visualize and interrogate the model in NVIZ
2. build the model inside Blender, simply export it in a dxf file (without DB), import the DXF in GRASS, connect the 3D DXF to a DB in GRASS and visualize it

OPTION 1

We are testing some script done by Andrea Scianna (Dirap, University of Palermo; please not: broken link) which are able to connect Blender with PostgreSQL and store geometrical and topological informations of the 3D models inside Postgis. There is no license in the script, so i guess they are released in the Public Domain (also because they come from a project called "Management and use of distributed 3D data by open source Web-GIS software"). I found the script here (please note: broken link) and i did some test with Giuseppe Naponiello. We started with "script 3" (the simplest) which "allows to connect to a database and write informations using triangular face model". I had to modify a little bit the script to update something (change the connection to psycopg1 in psycopg2 and so on...) and customize it for my db . At the end the script looks like this one (please note: broken link); and it works for my operating system (ArcheOS 4). If you want to use it just remember to customize the script with the data of your db (line 8) and build the db following the schema you can find in this publication. We started the test with a simple model of a skull (as you see in the picture below; please note: broken link) and the script worked perfectly, storing all the data inside PostgreSQL/Postgis.

Then we started GRASS, we set the connection with the database (Postgres) and this is what we get:

Inside NVIZ we were able to visualize our data (connected with the info inside the db) just as 3D points. Our hypothesis is that the script stores the geometrical/topological informations of the 3D models in a way that works for Blender, but is not recognized by GRASS. In other words we think that the script assign the same (numerical?) code to each point of the same triangular face (of course a single point can have more than one of these codes), so that Blender can read the data in Postgis and redraw the 3D model, but this is not valid for GRASS. Anyway this is just our idea and can be wrong. Maybe someone can help us to understand better the script (we are not good enough with Python). Actually we are stuck at this point of the test...

OPTION 2

We simply exported a dxf from Blender and import it in GRASS. Our intention is to connect it with the db in a second time with an external key. We did not yet tried it, because we are still favoring the first option, which looks like more direct and promising, so we plan to spend a little bit more time playing with the python scripts written by Andrea Scianna. In the picture below is shown the result we get using directly a dxf file. The problem by now is that in this way we are not able to preserve a direct connection with a db.

CONCLUSION

If someone wants to help us in this kind of experiment we will be very happy. Do not hesitate to contact us, any kind of clue or information is welcome!

LAST UPDATED  2016-01-29

We are currently studying different solutions for this topic. Nevertheless the subject is still interesting for researchers of other academic fields (e.g. geography). Unfortunately the links to the scripts, which were hosted in the University of Palermo server, are broken. Since the author (+Andrea Scianna) released them in Public Domain (as there was no specific license and, as far as I know, the main topic of the PRIN was "Management and use of distributed 3D data by open source Web-GIS software”), I restored the archive in our server. Currently the scripts can be downloaded here. I strongly suggest to read related documentation (by Andrea Scianna) if you want to use them.

Some data to play with

Back again! It was just a week without internet connection, but it looked like a month...
I saw that the post about the 3D PDF was interesting for some people so i go on with this topic. As i promised to Denis i uploaded the data: if someone wants to do some tests, here it is possible to find the u3d and the tex file.

In the meantime i upload an image from one of the presentation we did in Ferrara. It regards the same data (the skull done with SfM/IBM techniques) and shows an interesting (anthropological) application of the "slice" tool of ParaView (image done by Giuseppe Naponiello).

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.

Which GIS? OpenJUMP

We are often asked why there are so many GIS inside ArcheOS (GRASS, gvSIG, OpenJUMP, Quantum GIS, SAGA GIS, Udig). Today I start answering with OpenJUMP. This is my favorite software for an excavation GIS, due to its fantastic drawing tools (that make it similar to a CAD). So, from my point of view, OpenJUMP is the best GIS to draw vector layers from georeferenced photomosaics, like in the image you see below...

... but of course there are also many other tools, which sometime are usefull to handle excavation data (below you see the "warping" utility). Moreover the database integration in the program is pretty enought for this kind of small projects.

Something stupid

Yesterday evening i was working on an illustration for an archaelological publication. The image reguards an amphora I modeled in Blender, which for many reasons I had to cut in half (and along different sections). I lost a lot of time cutting the amphora with a (very simple) boolean operation inside Blender, but the final result was not good enought (especially considering the wasting of time). Finally I had the idea to export the amphora from blender and import it in ParaView, to use the simple "Clip" tool inside the very large filter collection of this software. This simple/stupid solution saved me a lot of time, so I complete my work inside ParaView. It is not the first time I have to use both of these software for a project and, like before, I used the .ply format to exchange models from Blender to ParaView and the other way around. 
In the image below you can see a screenshot of the amphora in ParaView.

GNewgnewarchaeology

Good news from University of Ferrara! A new workshop about Free/Libre and Open Source Software in archaeology will take place on the 13th – 14th October 2011. More info on the official website. It will be a good oppotunity to meet and exchange experiences and informations. See you there!

GNU logo

CMVS/PMVS2 40% faster

Test data fir Nghia Ho implementation

We tested the implementation written by Nghia Ho and the results are amazing. Data elaboration was effectvively 40% faster. Now we are working on the new package for ArcheOS, wich will be released ASAP.
In the image you can see the data we used for the test: the old version of CMVS/PMVS needed 153 minutes, while the new implementation completed the process in just 92 minutes.

3D for archaeological finds

One of the most common question we receive about SfM and Computer Vision techniques is: "is it possible to document in 3D also small objects like archaeological finds?". The answer is yes, it is, and there are two possible ways:

1. putting the object to record on a turntable (with a black panel as background) and taking pictures from a fix point  (as I described in this post)
2. taking pictures walking around the object (the easiest way)

Untill now, in both cases, it is better to use Bundler 3 instead Bundler 4 (that seems to have some problems with symmetrical objects). Anyway for option 2 there is no need to "erase the background" so it is possible to use also the newest version of the sofware (which is the one inside Python Photogrammetry Toolbox). This is because other objects in the background can help Bundler to find the right position of the cameras for every picture. the image below is an example of this situation: I took the photos walking around the archaeological find, which was simply placed on a piece of wood (over a normal A4 paper, for metric references).  

3D documentation of arcaheological finds with Bundler and PMVS2

The archaeological find in the picture comes from the mission in Khovle Gora (Georgia) of University of Innsbruck, Department of Ancient History and Near Eastern Studies, (Walter Kuntner and Sandra Heinsch) and Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (Prof. Vakhtang Licheli).

Metodo Aramus

In 2006 we joined the Aramus Excavations and Field School. That one was our first year in the project as a society. Our primary goal was to help in software migration from closed source softwares to FLOSS. The migration ended without problems, thanks to ArcheOS, but it caused some minor changes in the archaeological workflow. One of most important was the new methodology we had to develop in order to performe a fast photomapping technique of the excavation (at least as fast as the system they used before). We called this new methodology "metodo Aramus" and, untill now, we are still using it. The main reason is the quality we reached with the georeferenced photomosaics: compared with other traditional techniques, every single photo in the final image is equlized in brighteness and contrast. The result is a composite picture in which is more or less impossible to recognize the borders between the single photos.  

Comparison between traditional methodology and Metodo Aramus

Archaeological drawing from photomapping

IMHO one of the main benefits of photomapping is the fact that everybody is able to do good archaeological drawing. In this way it is not necessary to divide archaeologists between "diggers" (who simply excavate layer by layer)  and "drawers" (who just document). In our (Arc-Team) experience it is never a good solution when someone has to document a situation he does not know (because was exposed by someone else).
In other words, photomapping techniques and GIS allow also normal archaeologists to reach the same quality level of professionals in drawing layers or finds. As an example, the picture below shows the skeleton of a young goat found in Aramus (AM): the georeferenced photomosaic is done with photomapping techniques ("metodo Aramus") and the drawing is done by me (i am not a professional in drawing) using the GIS OpenJUMP (inside ArcheOS).

Georeferenced photomosaic and vector drawing with OpenJUMP

Good news from PMVS2

According to Pierre Moulon's Blog a new implementation (from Nghia Ho) has been integrated in CMVS-PMVS. The result should be a faster (up to 30%) data elaboration. We will start with the test as soon as possible and, in case, a new ArcheOS package for PPT (Python Photogrammetry Toolbox) and PPT-GUI will be released. For who wants to collaborate in PPT-GUI development, here is the link on GitHub.

In the video below are some archaeological examples done with this software.

Archaeological automatic drawing

In 2009 we were looking for a system to get a fast and easy way to draw a lot of archaeological finds automatically. Thanks to the help of Simone Cavalieri (who found in internet Adrian Secord's algorythm) we developed a methodology which, combining different Free/Libre and Open Source Software, has speeded up our drawing techniques. The main point of the problem was to get an automatic shading through dots, to respect most rules in archaeological drawing. The solution was the software Stippler, which gave us promising results. In the image below you can see just an example of automatic shading with a test low quality picture of the Venus of Willendorf (downloaded from Wikipedia).

Shading with stippler (stippler-GUI)

2016-04-28 Post updated

In 2010 we wrote an article (in Italian) about this technique:

"Proposta per un metodo informatizzato di disegno archeologico" (here in ResearchGate and here in Academia).