LinkSCEEM

The goal of work package 8 is to create tools for cultural heritage research. Utilizing the Medici web based content repository as the underlying framework we are including support for file types used in cultural heritage research in terms of metadata extraction and web based previewing. Medici will also serve as a central, and accessible, content repository where data can be shared and socially curated.

The goal of work package 11 is to create a portable interactive system by which to allow for remote collaboration in studies involving cultural heritage. Derived from work started under Peter Bajcsy, we are moving our Tele-immersive Environment for Everybody (TEEVE) work to utilize the relatively new low cost Kinect 3D depth cameras. Similar to Skype video conferencing, the TEEVE work captures and transmits 3D reconstructions rather than conventional 2D video. Because the data is three dimensional users at remote locations can zoom in and rotate the transmitted scenes. With lower cost 3D cameras and small profile modern computers available today the group hopes to put these feeds into the field. There are cultural artifacts that are broken over time and scattered in museums throughout the world. One of the goals of this work is to allow researchers to reassemble these pieces in a shared 3D virtual environment. With such a system a researcher will be able to capture the geometry of an artifact in a museum and work with other researchers around the world in real time to interactively place such pieces with others that are physically stored in remote locations. Utilizing the skeletal tracking that has made the Kinect the success it is the system will track a user’s hand and arm movements in order to do this. This work will leverage other work developed at NCSA such as Medici as the backend to store and link information between systems and AVL’s Virtual Director.

http://www.linksceem.eu/ls2/

European Commission – Linking Scientific Computing in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean (RI-261600), Work Package 8: Integration of Resources, 2010-2014

K. McHenry (Work Package Leader)

European Commission – Linking Scientific Computing in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean (RI-261600), Work Package 11: Cultural Heritage Research, 2011-2014

W. Pitard (Work Package Leader), K. McHenry (Task 2 Leader)