As reflected in work completed to date, INSIGHT provides research expertise combined with access to specific digital tools. Within a discussion of the Institute’s primary goals, the following section outlines the value of INSIGHT “Pilot” approach.
INSIGHT's 'Pilot' Approach
“The contribution of VR to scientific research in Archaeology is limited by the fact that its methods sometimes do not fulfil the methodological scientific paradigms internationally assessed for the discipline: most of the archaeologists do not understand it, do not trust it, do not validate its results. This results in a waste of a potentially revolutionary tool. There is … a gap between computer graphics, archaeologists and cultural resource managers ...”
- ANCI, Toscana
ANCI’s observed gap between computer graphics, archaeologists and cultural managers is not difficult to understand. Archaeologists should rightfully be expected to exercise real caution when faced with a fundamentally new way of gathering data in the field. Computer scientists, for their part, have concerns that are understandably separate from the world of culture heritage research. Plotting computer graphics and archaeology as circles on a sheet of paper would, typically, produce no intersection. Cultural resource managers, the third entity in ANCI’s quoted text, would add a third circle to our chart, but would not bridge the first two. INSIGHT believes that these groups have every reason to find common ground. Accordingly, a sincere desire to mediate between the normally separate worlds of technology and archaeology puts this effort first among INSIGHT’s goals.
The INSIGHT Pilot Program is intended to put archaeologists in direct touch with the process of digital cultural heritage. Once the scope of work is determined with a project’s host organization, the INSIGHT team then supervises the host’s requested fieldwork. Researchers from the host organization are involved in the planning, on-site digital work, and all subsequent work leading to the host’s desired final output. In this way, it is hoped that the host organization will have a stronger understanding of the real-world procedure for digital data capture. After a finite number of INSIGHT-assisted projects, it is hoped that host organizations will become self-sufficient. In the simplest terms, the Pilot program is meant to generate benchmarks, which can then be used by other groups.
In certain cases, there is a vital need to start applying digital heritage today. The University of Chicago Oriental Institute’s 60+-season project to record the site of Medinet Habu in Luxor represents a gold standard for traditional archaeological documentation. However, the demands for accuracy have resulted in a slow progress. For a monument threatened by rising ground water levels, it is a race against time. It would not be too dramatic to say that Dr. Johnson’s team is, sadly, losing this race.
A worldwide repository for field data, the Permanent Archive would actively solicit contributions from all researchers working in the area of digital cultural heritage. Two important aspects of the Permanent Archive concern the usability of its stored data. First, the INSIGHT staff will be responsible for tracking the accuracy of all data in the Library, regardless of its origin. In order to ensure high quality data, INSIGHT will publish standards for digital cultural heritage work and require that submissions meet these quality criteria. Additionally, INSIGHT staff will assist authors with their data submissions on a variety of topics.
Efforts to create standards for cultural heritage information have been made, most notably by the Getty Information Institute (formerly the Getty Art History Information Program) and CIDOC. In Developments in International Museum and Cultural Heritage Information Standards, first published in 1993 and updated July 1995, the Getty called for universally accepted (traditional) cultural heritage standards.
In many ways an extension of the GII/CIDOC’s groundbreaking work, INSIGHT wishes to establish digital standards in cultural heritage. Through the “Pilot” program, INSIGHT will work with interested parties to establish and maintain a “gold standard” for digital cultural heritage practice.
“The data migration problem is the problem of computing an efficient plan for moving data stored on devices in a network from one configuration, or assignment to devices, to another. More interesting variants of the problem arise when we consider the possibility of indirect parallel migrations, and when we take into account storage constraints on the devices.”
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle
The Permanent Archive will ensure data migration, a crucial but often ignored fact of digital life. CD-ROMs (a common archive option) have a finite lifespan of apprx. 30 years. Even more importantly, the relevant applications, operating system, and computer equipment used to create originally create the data are also required to ensure future legibility. The goal of data migration is to guarantee that data never becomes unreadable of obsolete, by constantly managing the digital archives.
In order to safeguard against this digital data loss:
Access to the Permanent Archive, in its entirety, will be offered on the web, subject to registration in the INSIGHT World Heritage Database.
CD-ROM / DVD-ROM copies of the complete Permanent Archive archive will be available to other libraries, institutions or interested researchers at a subsidized cost. Full sets of comprehensive digital recordings would be offered to: ENS, UC Berkeley, MIT, and the CLN Library.
The main advantage to having objects and sites in the Permanent Archive is the ability to closely study a subject without requiring the researcher to be in its physical presence. Reacting immediately, anyone would be quick to point out that the actual site can never be replaced. However, consider how excavation, looting, or even catastrophic events such as the September 2000 damage at Machu Picchu transform a site. With accurate recordings in the Permanent Archive, a researcher will be able still be able to study the site in such cases. The ability to record and compare a site at different points in time is a particularly interesting application enabled by the Permanent Archive. Dr. Vincent of ARCE EAP had exactly this suggestion for the INSIGHT team during the March 2000 “Barquq” project in Cairo. In the near future, the 3D space sampling info. collected in digital archives will become the primary document for researchers around the world.
The Permanent Archive gives researchers the ability to create multiple “what-if” scenarios when attempting three-dimensional reconstructions of objects or sites. Researchers may draw on basic engineering tools (finite element analysis, et cetera) to test the physical plausibility of their reconstruction. Importantly, researchers can freely compare their reconstructions. Visualizations can also be made that clearly designate what elements of an image are drawn from objective fact and which portions are conjecture.
Computer assisted reconstruction may be applied in cases where traditional models or drawings are not practicle. Dr. Marc Levoy’s Forma Urbis project is a well known example of using computers to help solve the reconstruction of a whole from many extant fragments.
Within a decade, it is hoped that digital tools for heritage purposes will be dramatically simplified. In any case, the capability of this technology is limited by the quality and thoughtfulness of its application. As technical development proceeds, it is crucial that the intelligent research application of the technology follows suit. As addressed above, INSIGHT's main goal is to expose today's archaeologists to the tools they will use tomorrow. As such, INSIGHT encourages broad thinking and a sophisticated approach to the applying digital tools. In particular, INSIGHT encourages researchers to embrace true 3D visualization of recorded sites and objects.
“…most of the important structures of heritage have been documented in the form of orthographic projections. These methods have so far been the most widely used methods for referencing and archiving. But they still remain non-interactive, very technical, non user-friendly and cumbersome, giving a lot of scope for human errors and missing data. The human vision is binocular and hence the view perceived by a human being is always 3-Dimensional. In this case a virtual 3 dimensional environment becomes the most comfortable environment.“
- Nikhilesh Haval, Design Associate,
CAD and Graphics Department
National Center for Software Technology, Bombay, India
From the 18th c. advent of orthographic projection, architects and designers have spoken the language of ground plan, centerline section, and front elevation. Originated by mathematician Gaspard Monge and vaulted to prominence in Napoleon’s military, today these ideas still underlie current archaeological drawings, plans and photographs. These fundamental tools for recording 3D objects in 2D space are naturally still relevant. However, the late 20th c. advent of CAD and 3D digital modeling opens new possibilities for the recording and study of real world objects. Because even the most exacting freehand drawing is a planar approximation of the three dimension object being recorded, true 3D visualization can offer greater fidelity to the object being studied. Like a “3D photograph,” there are key advantages to a true 3D view, particularly because of its digital (and therefore easily reproducable) origin.
It is not correct to think that traditional documentation techniques are separated
from digital techniques by a rigid boundary, however. It is instead a
permeable border, where digital models may be freely expressed in the traditional
orthographic form. Digital models can be transferred to popular formats (i.e.,
AutoCAD) for use by architects and engineers. These same files can be used as
the basis for reconstructions, physical models, or object movies. The reverse
is equally possible: 2D drawings can serve as the basis for 3D models
or reconstructions.