ATOR (Arc-Team Open Research).
The blog spreads tests, problems and results of Arc-Team research in archaeology, following the guidelines of the OpArc (Open Archaeology) project.
Camera tracking is a fabulous technology that allows us, through a real footage, capture the movements of the camera and create a digitized version in Blender. Besides the camera, we can also captured landmarks, thus we can make a composition of virtual + real footage elements. It offers a lot of possibilities, ranging from putting a flying saucer over a city linked to the use in retail advertisements, such as those where prices appear, usually with an explosion or earthquake.
When we cross that tracking technology with photogrammetry, we can expanded more the range of possibilities. In the video above is a good example, because the ball and oranges placed beside the bust, make a lot of the spectors stay confused. What is very common, because those elements were digitized (scanned in 3D from photos) under the same lighting conditions used in that video. The terrain itself was scanned using photogrammetry shortly after the video was recorded. The pictures were taken with the same camera, the 3D might be used up for subsequent animation, because the light was consistent with that presented in the recorded scene.
The tracking technology is not just to capture the movements of a camera. We can also capture a point or set of points for use in various types of material, such as facial animation. The video above shows a proposed activity in one of my classes taught in a production company here in my town (Sinop-MT, Brazil). The objective was to test the tracking and apply the animation on the face of a reconstruction of an young Egyptian of the Roman period. By doing so, the movements would be much more natural than simply animate a face manually.
We take the opportunity and tested the 3D facial tracking to replace the head of the individual filmed by another team member.
Above we have an example of tracking to capture the key points for the animation of a humanoid.
Remembering the Past: The video above was made to be presented in a lecture that I ministered at Latinoware 2010. At that time Blender did not have native tracking system and we had to solve this by using the Voodoo (freeware). To create the material I had the help of two people, Daniel Ludvig, the owner of the producing which I minister the classes today and Teo Macedo, art director, he is the same person appearing in the picture and video above. Thank you all!
Capturing the camera is not difficult for those who know the equipment. Apart from good referrals, we must bear in mind the data of the equipment used in the recording, as the aperture and the CCD.
The high point of this link is that it offers downloads of the video used in the tutorial, you can start to test the technology without filming anything for now!
QGIS
style tools for vector layers allow us to build custom symbols for
archaeological drawings (plans and sections). In this post I will
present some preliminary
examples of customizable styles for graphically representing hachures
and soil texture (clay, silt, sand and so on). For each, the .qml style files are downloadable from http://www.uselessarchaeology.com/ (section programming): you can put them in your QGIS
project and/or add to QGIS style manager for testing and modifying.
Using
vector styles makes the drawing more automatic and fast, because is
no more necessary to draw manually each individual symbol.
Furthermore, vector styles enable to change quickly the size of
symbols when the scale changes: in such way there is no need to scale
any single object.
The
bulding of a new style is managed by QGIS style window: with
button “Add symbol layer”
is possible to make a new symbol joining 2 or more individual
symbols. All symbols settings (dimension, angle, offset, etc.) can be
changed in the same window.
Hachures
In
plans, the edges of holes and ditches and the differences in level are
represented with hachures. They are composed by an isosceles
triangle and a line: the triangle marks the highest part of the
feature, where the slope begins; the line represents the length and
direction of the slope, with the end of the line showing the bottom
of the slope. I created 3 different styles of hachure for point
layers (hachure_pn), linear layers (hachure_ln) and
polygon layers (hachure_pl).
For
representing the differences in level, for example at the top of
wall, I create a shapefile of points connected to an attribute table
with two numeric columns named “angle” and “length”: the
first column records rotation angle of hachures, the latter records
the length of hachure's lines (where lines are not required, the
column value will be always “0”). Then I draw points in the place
where there are differences in altitude, I load hachure_pn
style,
I rotate each points with “Rotate Point Symbols tool” (in
advanced digitizing toolbar)
and I write the line length I desire in attribute table.
All
settings are customizable: from “Marker – Advanced – Rotation
field” you can set attribute columns
for angle; from
“Vector Field Marker” you can set attribute columns
for angle and length; from “Simple marker” you can set triangle
dimensions and offset: usually I give an offset that is half of
triangle dimension for fitting the point to the line.
Hachure_pn
style can be used also for linear or polygon features.
If
I have to draw a scarp, I create a linear shapefile and I load
hachure_ln style. It's possible to modify dimension of
triangles, space between symbols, width of line, etc. changing
parameters in QGIS style window.
For
representing a ditch or a hole, I create 2 polygon shapefiles, one
for top perimeter of the feature, one for the bottom limits. The top
polygon is drawn by hachure_pl style and the bottom polygon is
filled by white color: in the layer tree the bottom polygon must stay
over the top polygon for covering the hachure's lines that exceed the
slope. Like above, dimensions, space between symbols, offset and so
on are editable in QGIS style window.
Soil
texture
I
post some examples of archaeological layers filled with symbols
representing soil components: clay,
silt, sand, silt-sand.
You
have to pay attention to the settings of the these styles. Many
symbols are set in map units and not in absolute measure (i.e.
millimeters) to better fit the variation of scale during the display.
For printing, all style settings must be changed according to the
plot scale; for this purpose printing tests are recommended. Finally,
I suggest to export in .svg format and modify the layout in Inkscape
for adjusting the last details.
In
future I hope to post other examples of archaeological styles. But if
you have other ideas or you want to contribute with your personal
QGIS archaeological styles, we could create a shared library of
archaeological symbols for QGIS.
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.
Hi all,
today I simply post the call for paper of the ArcheoFOSS 2014, which will be held in Verona. The text below has been written by +piergiovanna grossi, of the committee thatis organizing the event:
The logo of ArcheoFOSS workshops (done by +Paolo Cignoni)
IX Workshop Free/Libre and Open Source Software and Open Format in
the processes of archaeological research
From research to shared knowledge. Technologies, methodologies and
language of open archaeology
Verona, 19-20th June 2014
The IX Workshop ArcheoFOSS will be hosted by the Department Time, Space,
Image and Society and Department of Computer Science, University of
Verona. The workshop will focus on the use of free and open source
software and on the opening and sharing of data related to archeology
and cultural heritage. Key topics range from field research activities,
to analysis and lab studies, to sharing and dissemination via web,
including the presentation of excavation, research, study activities and
of projects aimed at data processing and dissemination.
The thematic lines are:
- FLOSS systems and tools in archaeological and cultural heritage research;
- FLOSS systems and tools in management, preservation and enhancement of
archaeological and cultural heritage;
- FLOSS systems of representation, analysis, sharing and web publishing
of archaeological and cultural heritage;
- Projects focused on opening and disseminating archaeological and
cultural heritage data.
Workshop sessions, in which the proposals may be included, are:
1 . talks
2 . seminars / workshops
3 . presentations of dissertations or small projects in progress
4 . barcamp
5 . install party or programming section
6 . other ( to be specified by the proposer )
Proposals will be included in the program based on contents, quality of
work and number of proposals received.
The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2014 , at 24.00.
In the last years we (Arc-Team) had to deal with an increasing number of missions or emergency interventions in high mountain environment, so that our team started to specialized in this new branch of archeology.
High mountain archeology is strictly connected with climate changes for mainly two reasons:
1) the actual global warming implicates the retreat of glaciers and the subsequent discovery of artifacts and ecofacts, which have been preserved by the ice until now
2) artifacts and ecofatcs released by the glacier melting phenomenon are a fundamental source of informations regarding climate change itself (epsecially from the point of view of paleoclimatology)
The emergency interventions are caused by the preservation problems connected with the organic material of many archaeological finds, which, once freed from ice, begin to deteriorate very quickly. Moreover many areas of discovery are threatenedby landslidesof the rocks, which in few days cover the new empty space let by the glacier retreat.
The main problems of an high mountain archaeological mission regard logistic difficulties. As an example, the video below shows the landing during the intervention we did to recover some ecofacts in the Oetztal (AT) in 2012.
In this particular mission we had to deal with the limited internal space of the helicopter, which threatened toaffect the numberof "airborne archaeologists" and the amount of different equipment, necessary for the field-work. In fact, for this project (a fast one-day operation), we planned a strategy based on the redundancy of the instruments (in a similar way to an underwater archeology mission), so that it would have been possible to change methodology in case of unforeseen problems. More specifically or first plan was to georeference all the archaeological finds documentations, based on different techniques (2D photomosaic, 3D SfM models, etc...), using our RTK GPS, while the B-plan was simply to set up a local coordinate system with our total station. Following the first axiom of Murphy's laws (Anything that can go wrong — will go wrong), we could not use directly the GPS, because the area of archaeological interest was completely shielded by mountains and the satellite signal, as well as the radio signal from the base station to the rover, was accessible only on the top of the surrounding picks. To avoid this problem we climbed on one of these picks and placed two fixed points with the rover on the ridge which was closets to the area of interest (without any optical occlusion). In this way, at a later time, we could use the total station to document the archaeological evidences, georeferencing the directly on the UTM system.
Alessandro Bezzi placing a fixpoint with the GPS rover
After this mission, we learned to not underestimate logistic problems in high mountain archaeological project and to study alternative solutions for emergency cases (mainly based on equipment redundancy). This long premise is intended to be an introduction to the main topic of this post: the exhibition "FROZEN STORIES - Discoveries in the Alpine glaciers", which will take place in the city of Bolzano/Bozen/Bulsan, hosted in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (where is preserved the mummy of Similaun, Oetzy) form 22 /02/2014 till 22/02/2015.
The poster of the exhibition
If you plan to pay a visit to the exhibition, among other (more) interesting things, you could see some of our high mountain archaeological expeditions :)
PS The Arc-Team contribution to the exhibition is mainly based on the Langrub Joch project, in which I did not participate directly, but that was lead by +Alessandro Bezzi, +Rupert Gietland +Giuseppe Naponiello, under the scientific direction of Dr. Subert Steiner of the Archaeological Office of the Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano / Autonome Provinz Suedtirol. Maybe one of my colleagues will write a post about this project in the feature.
This post aims to address the main aspects of the project Il Volto di
Sant'Antonio, which addresses the facial reconstruction of this
historical and religious figure. To illustrate this post we took the
wide publication of interviews and news related to the project, in both
printed field, online and television.
Subtitled inEnglish-Interviewabout the facialreconstructionofSt. Anthony-regional broadcast-Bom Dia MT (TVCA TV)
Background
In 2012 started the Taung project, a partnership between the research
group Arc-Team, the association of Italian anthropologists Antrocom
Onlus (Dr. Moreno Tiziani), Department of Anthropology and Museum
Studies at the University of Padua (UNIPD) represented by Dr. Nicola
Carrara. In this project we reconstruct the face of a human ancestor,
the Taung Child. It was an Australopithecus africanus fossil of 2.5
million years. The entire process was executed with free software and
this gave us the basis for further study of reconstructions aimed not
only human evolution, but also the historical figures. The studies
continued and became a series of faces of hominids.
Subtitled inEnglish-Live interviewabout the facialreconstructionofSt. Anthony-national broadcast-GloboNews TV
Between May and September of 2013 happened in Rosicrucian Egyptian
Museum in Curitiba-PR (Brazil) the exhibition Faces of Evolution, with
the facial reconstructions created during the studies related to Taung
project.
Luca Bezzi (Arc-Team), Moreno Tiziani (Antrocom Onlus) and Dr. Nicola Carrara (UNIPD) - Taung Project
The exhibition consisted of replicas of human ancestors (hominids)
scanned in 3D by archaeologist Dr. Moacir Elias Santos, from the
Archaeological Museum Flamarion Ciro Cardoso, in Ponta Grossa-PR. The
modeling of the muscles and skin ran on my own. I reconstruct digitally
the facial tissues of those hominids, following a number of references
involving both human anatomy, as gorillas, and chimpanzees.
In view of the good results scientific and artistic of the work, there
was an interest on the part of UNIPD to create an Italian version of the
Faces of Evolution. Originally the stipulated date was: November 2014.
To complement the exhibition, I was hired to rebuild a total of eight
faces, three of them related to human evolution and the other five for a
parallel exhibition on Italian historical personalities.
The face of St. Anthony
The identity of the five individuals would be informed as soon as the
basic reconstruction of each face was completed. When I finished the
basic model of the first study, the results was sent to Luca Bezzi, the
representant of Arc-Team Group from Italy, which was the bridge to the
museum in Padua and Centro Studi Antioniani, an organization that takes
care of matters related to the saint.
Thehiddenfaceof St. Anthony, the result will berevealed onJune 13, 2014
After
analyzing the results, the archaeologist Luca Bezzi asked me if I
wanted to know who the skull belonged. Before he finished the sentence I
replied affirmatively. He then sent a link to Wikipedia in Portuguese.
This link appeared the name St. Anthony of Lisbon. I was quite
impressed, but I confess I had not realized who it really was. I thanked
him for the honor and follow for other reconstruction.
Pagestoryin the newspaperCorreio Popular, an importantBraziliannewspaper-Thetrue faceof St. Anthonyhiddenfaceof St. Anthony
The fact is that I had not read the post completely, only the top of the
page.
Pagestoryin the newspaperJornal do Comércio, other importantBraziliannewspaper
When, out of curiosity I opened it again, I put in the Italian
version, it is a custom that I see content in multiple languages. The
name then changed to St. Anthony of Padua. However, he was not
Portuguese? I was quite intrigued by this characteristic. I then
returned to the Portuguese version, I was decided to read the entire
contents.
When I reached the part of the folklore and saw that he was the
matchmaker, so here I realized who I had rebuilt. Saint Anthony, the
patron saint of my town (Sinop-MT, Brazil) and the name of the hospital I
was born in Chapecó-SC (Brazil). It was also the name of my grandfather
and the creator of Blender, Ton (Anthony) Roosendaal, rightly named
after the saint. I realized that I knew nothing about this figure so
popular.
História Viva (Live History) Brazilian magazine - april 2014.
I began to ask some acquaintances about him and few knew its history,
almost all unaware the plus names, Lisbon or Padua. How was that
possible? Such a so venerated and yet so unknown person.
So I decided, as a good nerd, reading what appeared in front and watch
all the movies that were directly or indirectly on the subject.
Cover story ofJornal CapitalNewspapers (Sinop-MT) - The true face of saint
I found out he was born Fernando Martins in 1195, he was originally an
Augustinian and later he became a Franciscan friar. He was a university
professor. He used his intellect in favor of faith, although initially
it was not viewed favorably by St. Francis of Assisi, but after San
Francisco officially allowed him to use the knowledge of books to
convert people and soften hearts. I also learned that he died on the way
to Padua in 1231, he was buried there and four times did the
recognition of his body, the last in 2010. The first time, thirty-odd
years after his death, they found the intact tongue, which was
interpreted as a divine sign and even today they bring preserved in a
reliquary.
The documentary
Faced with an opportunity that was perhaps unique in my life and the
lives of my research partners, I had the idea of turning this work
into a documentary. In this documentary, we explanaremos entire
reconstruction process based on free and open software.
TV story about the facial reconstruction of St. Antony - Gente TV (Rede TV)
The documentary will put two seemingly opposing subjects into harmony:
faith and science. People who nourish faith will enjoy seeing the face
of the saint revealed and certainly identify with her appearance,
because it is a more robust and more human individual that the artistic
different idealizations suffered over the years. People who enjoy
science, will be presented to the demonstration of the technical
implementation of a scientific methodology that will reveal to the world
the face of a historical figure, based on statistical, artistic and
archaeological data.
Notícia do Estado de Mato Grosso magazine - Ed. 120 - Year XX, March/ 2014
To put into practice the project, it was necessary to contact a number
of partners, both commercial, as of research. To the press, got the
support of BW Communications, a company based in Sinop-MT, which has in
its portfolio, important personalities and events of the city and the
region. To work filming and authoring media, we have the support of
producer L8 Movies and agency Nova Mídia Advertisements, businesses with
large awards in state and regional competitions for advertising.
(Porguese) TV story for a national channel SBT
In
science, we have a partnership of the Laboratory of Anthropology and
Forensic Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, USP (OFLAB) by Dr. Rodolfo
Francisco Haltenhoff Melani and Dr. Paulo Eduardo Dias Miamoto. Thanks
to this partnership, we could introduce the techniques of facial
reconstruction with open software to academic and enhance them with the
participation of researchers within a university respected throughout
the national territory. With Dr. Miamoto, we developed a lot of
research, ranging from the field of dentistry, passes through archeology
and comes to medicine and veterinary dentistry in a profusion of
interdisciplinary knowledge, including that we had already been awarded
at an event at USP.
Interview for a local TV program - Se Liga Sinop
The Technology Center Renato Archer (CTI) is a reference in developing
technology in Brazil. The InVesalius, an editor of CT scans and IMG2DCM a
simple image converter in CT scans, are examples of two powerful free
software at the Division of dimensional Technologies (DT3D) CTI. Thanks
to this partnership, the bust of St. Anthony will be printed in 3D in
color and real scale. This bust will be taken to Italy, where it will be
delivered by me to the Museum of Padua during the days of the official
festivities of the saint. Will be a gift not only from Brazil to Italy,
but from Brazil to the world.
All this will not be limited to bust donated, however it materialize all
the knowledge displayed during the documentary. The big challenge we
have in these next few months is to raise the cash required to terminate
it. Although we have achieved significant portion of total trading
volume needed to run it, we need yet a third of the final value. We hope
to achieve it with the help of entrepreneurs initially Sinop and
thereafter anyone interested in financing the project.
(Portuguese) - Interview for a local program - Cidade Urgente
Objectives
If all goes well, the material will be ready in November 2014 and will
be presented in a Premiere will occur simultaneously in Italy and
Brazil. The documentary will have no profit, what we want is to create
an example of use of free software in practice. I understand that St.
Anthony is a historical and religious figure who influenced crowds, and
even if this job does not have religious biased, what you see is the
miracle of the multiplication of knowledge, through work done by many
hands, at various points in world, with the main goal of share with all
the most information possible.
Bibliography
L. Bezzi (Arc-Team), C. Moraes (Arc-Team), N. Carrara (Museo Antropologico dell'Università di Padova), Il volto del Santo. La ricostruzione Facciale Forense di Sant'Antonio di Padova (document in Academia; document in ResearchGate)
