ITR/SY+AP: Acquisition, Representation, and Remote Visualization of Digital Artifacts

该项目的目标是研究和开发通过互联网访问数字图书馆馆藏的高质量，可扩展和可重构的采集和显示系统。我们将在波多黎各艺术博物馆（Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico）获得新的数字收藏，并通过可扩展和可重构的终端用户显示器向他们提供访问权限。这些显示器将与远程模型服务器合作，在当前网络条件下提供最高可能的显示保真度。为了广泛地获取和传播数字馆藏，需要在3D模型获取、内容交付和显示方面取得革命性的进步。为此，我们将专注于以下研究挑战：采集：我们将提供新的采集策略，旨在产生高质量的分层，基于图像的表示，3d形状描述和多层数据。这些新策略将实现高效访问和高分辨率终端用户显示。纹理、形状和元数据的混合表示。表示：我们将以一种接近MPEG-4多媒体标准提供的特性的方式对获得的集合进行编码。这种编码将保持数据的丰富性和保真度，同时实现访问、操作和集合演变的标准化。远程访问：我们将开发支持在异构网络环境中分布式访问数字馆藏的新技术。这些技术将被设计用于满足从非常高质量的本地显示和低延迟交互式操作到广域、潜在低比特率链路上的远程访问的各种频谱的访问需求。显示：我们将开发新技术，为那些无法获得复杂专用技术支持和高成本硬件的机构和用户部署可扩展的平铺投影显示器。这些可扩展的显示系统可以从商品硬件组装，并提供自动，连续校准和快速可重构性。这项工作的动机源于对数字化馆藏的高质量保存、访问和展示技术的需求。图书馆、博物馆和想要获取、操作和提供远程访问（和高清显示）数字化文物的研究学者需要具有成本效益、非侵入性、易于配置的方法来创建和查看高质量的藏品。新技术将在现实世界的图书馆馆藏中进行评估，特别关注我们的合作机构——波多黎各艺术博物馆（Museo de Arte dePuerto Rico）的文物保存和传播。在专家顾问的帮助下，我们的合作机构将为该项目做出重大贡献（见附件），我们将开发和部署一个原型系统，用于使用作为该项目一部分开发的技术进行采集和展示。由此产生的数字档案将通过互联网向博物馆的赞助人以及世界各地的更多观众开放。我们相信这项研究将产生重大的近期、中期和长期影响。该项目的直接影响将是开发新的采集、访问和展示方法，这些方法将在波多黎各艺术博物馆进行部署和测试，使他们的部分收藏品以以前不可能的形式提供。从中期来看，我们的新技术方法不仅对数字图书馆社区有价值，而且对其他需要可配置大型显示系统的研究、教学和商业领域（例如，教室、研究可视化中心、会议场所等）也有价值。从长远来看，我们相信这项提议的工作有可能对人们查看数据和与数据交互的方式产生重大影响，无论数据是历史文物的收集，复杂模拟的视觉表示，还是在课堂上呈现的数据/插图等。此外，我们方法的成本效益意味着它将为广泛的用户负担得起。

The goal of this project is to research and develop high-quality, scalable, and reconfigurable acquisitionand display systems for digital library collections accessed via the Internet. We will acquire new digitalcollections at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and provide access to them through end-user displaysthat are scalable and reconfigurable. These displays will cooperate with a remote model server toprovide the highest possible display fidelity under the current network conditions. In order to allowthe widespread acquisition and dissemination of digital collections, revolutionary advances in 3D modelacquistion, content delivery, and display are required. To thisend,we will focus on the following researchchallenges: Acquisition: we willprovide new acquisition strategies designed to produce high-quality layered,image-based representations, 3-D shape descriptions, and multi-layerd data. These new strategieswill enable efficient access and high-resolution end-user display. hybrid representation of texture,shape, and metadata. Representation: we will encode the acquired collection in a way that moves toward the featuresprovided in the MPEG-4 multimedia standard. This encoding will preserve the richness andfidelity of the data while achieving standardization for access, manipulation, and evolution ofcollections over time. Remote Access: we will develop new techniques supporting distributed access to digital col-lections in a heterogeneous networked environment. These techniques will be designed to satisfyaccess requirements across a spectrum that varies from very high quality local display and low-latency interactive manipulation, to remote access over wide-area, potentially low bitrate links. Display: we will develop new techniques for deploying scalable tiled projection displays forinstitutions and users who do not have access to sophisticated and dedicated technical support andhigh-cost hardware. These scalable display systems can be assembled from commodity hardwareand provide automatic, continuous calibration, and rapid reconfigurability.The motivation for this work stems from the need for high-quality preservation, access, and displaytechniques for digitized collections. Libraries, museums, and research scholars who want to acquire,manipulate, and provide remote access to (and high-definition display of)digitized artifacts need costeffective, non-intrusive, easily configurable methods for creating and viewing high-quality collections.New techniques will be evaluated on real-world library collections with particular focus on the preser-vation and dissemination of artifacts at our partner institution for this work, the Museo de Arte dePuerto Rico . With the aid of expert consultants who will contribute significant effort towards thisproject at our partner institution (see attached letter), we willdevelop and deploy a prototype systemfor acqusition and display using the techniques developed as part of this project. The resulting digitalarchive will be made accessible to patrons of the museum as well as a much larger audience around theworld via the Internet.We believe that this research will have significant immediate, medium-term and long-term impact.The immediate impact of the project will be the development of new acquisition, access, and displaymethods that will be deployed and tested at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, making parts of theircollections available in forms not previously possible. In the medium term, our new technical approacheswill be valuable not only to the digital library community, but also to other research, instructional, andcommercial areas where configurable large-scale display systems are needed (e.g., classroom, researchvisualization centers, conference venues, etc). In the long term, we believe this proposed work hasthe potential to substantially impact the way people view and interact with data, whether the data isa collection of historical artifacts, a visual representation of a complex simulation, data/illustrationspresenting in the classroom, etc. Moreover, the cost effectiveness of our approach means that it will beaffordable to a wide range of users.