CDI-Type I: Automated Documentation and Illustration of Material Culture through the Collaborative Algorithmic Rendering Engine (CARE)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The ability of computers to unify visual information from multiple imagingmodes into comprehensible illustrations will revolutionize the ability ofscientists, engineers, and humanities scholars to gain and communicateknowledge about the visual world. Achieving this goal, however, willrequire a joint focus on developing novel shape and image analysis methods,and designing collaborative user interfaces that allow multiple domainexperts and illustrators to bring together their expertise. TheCollaborative Algorithmic Rendering Engine (CARE) will be an open-source toolfor extracting and merging visual details available only under certainlighting conditions, certain wavelengths, or certain imaging modalities. By focusing on minimal user effort, cross-site collaborative visualizationdesign, and integrated archiving and process history (provenance) tracking,the CARE tool is specifically designed to remove existing obstacles towidespread adoption of digital tools for visual analysis and communication.As part of the project, investigators are developing novel image analysistechniques that build upon existing technologies such as ReflectanceTransformation Imaging (RTI) and non-photorealistic rendering using imageswith normals (RGBN NPR), which have already received enormous interestwithin the cultural heritage community. The research includes methods for:(1) analyzing the collection of images to decompose them into "maps" ofcolor, orientation, and material at each pixel; (2) performing an arbitrarysequence or combination of image-processing operations on some or all ofthe maps separately; and (3) combining several maps into the finalillustration. The whole process is driven by (4) a user interface designedfor interactive response and including special features that enablecollaborative illustration design.The project involves a close collaboration between a university-based researchgroup, responsible for development of new technologies, and a non-profitcompany with a demonstrated track record of working with museums andarchaeological sites to deploy novel imaging and computational photographysystems. This joint development will ensure that the underlyingtechnologies will have immediate high impact in the field: culturalheritage scholars and scientists will be able to generate high-quality,comprehensible illustrations for scientific papers and textbooks, with controlover selective emphasis, contrast, attention, and abstraction, at lowercost and greater flexibility than generating such figures by hand. The subjectmatter of art history also offers the unique opportunity to stimulate theinterest of students who would not normally take courses in computerscience, broadening the class of students exposed to the tools and capabilitiesof computing.