ITR/AP+IM: Computational Tools for Modeling, Visualizing and Analyzing Historic and Archaeological Sites

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e are proposing to develop computational tools for researchersand students to model, visualize, and analyze historic and ancientsites. This proposal addresses four major scientific componentsto support this research. First, we are proposing new methodsof creating complex, 3-D, photorealistic models of large sites.This includes a mobile robot sensing system that can be used asan intelligent sensing device over a large scale. Second, we areproposing to develop new methods to image below-ground data accuratelyand efficiently. These methods are especially suited to modelingthe wealth of subsurface information at archaeological sites.Third, we will be developing new database technology to catalogand access a site's structures, artifacts, objects, and historicalreferences. This will significantly improve a user's ability toquery and analyze a site's information. Fourth, we have createda wearable augmented reality system for presenting georegisteredinformation to mobile users, using overlaid graphics and sound.We will extend this system to create a new class of informationvisualization systems that integrate 3-D above- and below-groundmodels, 2-D images, text and other web-based resources to annotatethe physical environment We will apply this system to supportscientists in the field, as well to allow on-site and remote toursof historic and ancient sites. The research will utilize a localtestbed, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City,and a unique and important archaeological excavation at the DakhlehOasis in Egypt. The project will attract students and the publicto the study of world heritage; provide an exceptional opportunityfor active learning; and develop our ability to explore, analyze,critically evaluate and interpret material culture within historicalcontexts. The challenge is to bring the on-site experiences thatdevelop these skills to the classroom and the public in general.Through critical inquiry and a variety of techniques, teachersand students can reconstruct examples of material culture to developa complex understanding of the past. In this way, we can resistthe temptation to replicate with new technologies what we havedone successfully with other means and instead expand the possibilitiesfor learning. Through learning in context, this project will bringtogether the primary sources of various fields and draw the socialsciences out of the classroom into the historical milieu. Thisproject will hopefully redefine the relationships among technology,faculty research and curriculum content. Most important, it willdisseminate this information to as wide an audience as possible.