Speaker: Corey Toler-Franklin, Princeton University

Title: Matching, Visualizing and Archiving Cultural Heritage Artifacts Using Multi-Channel Images

Abstract: Recent advancements in low-cost acquisition technologies have made it more practical to acquire real-world datasets on a large scale. This has lead to a number of computer-based solutions for reassembling, archiving and visualizing cultural heritage artifacts. In this talk, I will show how we can combine aspects of these technologies in novel ways and introduce algorithms to improve upon their overall efficiency and robustness. First, I will introduce a 2D acquisition system to address the challenge of acquiring higher resolution color and normal maps than those available with 3D scanning devices. Next, I will incorporate these normal maps into a novel multi-cue matching system that uses machine learning to reassemble small fragments of artifacts. I will show examples of how this system is used by archaeologists at the Akrotiri Excavation Laboratory of Wall Paintings in Santorini Greece for reconstructing the Theran Frescoes. I will then present a non-photorealistic rendering pipeline for illustrating geometrically complex objects using images with multiple channels of information (including RGBN images). Finally, I will talk about an approach for visualizing historic artifacts from digital museum collections.