Jonas BRUSCHKE / Markus WACKER
(HTW Dresden, Dresden, Germany)
Keywords: documentation, 3d-reconstruction, data exploration, graph database, version control
Abstract:
Nowadays, digital reconstructions are becoming more and more common in archaeology and architecture. They visualize lost, but also present structures, can broaden the comprehension of the reconstructed object and point out historical and constructional relationships. Furthermore the process of reconstruction leads to an aggregation of knowledge and has become a substantial part of scientific work.
However, such projects usually lack of a proper, traceable, and valuable documentation practice. In the final reconstruction state the reference of a source for a certain object may only been known to experts in the project. Understanding from an external point of view often becomes a cumbersome process. Most research for documentation practice is concentrated to theoretical approaches; valuable practical tools are still missing.
We introduce a documentation tool for 3d reconstruction supposed to accompany a project and to support frequent tasks in digital reconstruction processes. All used sources can be (easily) inserted into the system and connected to the reconstructed objects. Simultaneously, the whole development process is logged automatically. The data is stored compliant to the CIDOC-CRM in a graph database, which matches the structure of an ontology and is designed for highly connected data. With suitable navigation functionality the user can explore/compare the 3d-model together with the sources and information. Furthermore there is a special mode for briefings: comments of the participating users can be logged and sketches can be drawn on the model or plans which will be available for the following modelling process. Version control ensures that edited objects are synchronised with the database to record all development steps and to be able to access older versions of the model. This tool not only may help enormously during the reconstruction process but also can be applied for final presentation of the results to experts or e.g. museum visitors.