Workflow for photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning – data acquisition to Sketchfab

Keywords: laser scanning, photogrammetry, point-clouds, 3D modeling, 3D presentation

Abstract:
At Global Digital Heritage, nearly 100 years of combined experience has created a workflow that has solved many of the problems of quality acquisition, data processing, visualization, and data access. But this is a dynamic process. Our methods integrate terrestrial and aerial photographs, terrestrial and aerial LiDAR, GIS, Google Earth, and other geospatial data and imagery. As new algorithms, software, hardware, and ideas are created, these are integrated into the workflow to create new opportunities for digital heritage and archaeology. These are then transformed into videos, virtual reality, architectural drawings, orthophotos, and virtual reconstructions. Lastly, these are served on the web as raw data, as research tools, as sources of scientific analysis, and as the art of archaeology and architecture. Here we provide a key example of this process.
In April of 2018, Global Digital Heritage (GDH) in partnership with Baraka Arqueólogos conducted a one-week digital documentation campaign at of the important heritage Paleolithic cave site, Cueva de los Casares, in Guadalajara, Spain. With more than 200 meters of accessible passages, this cave is widely recognized for containing some of the most important cave art in the country, including both engravings and paintings dating to over 20,000 years ago. It was also used Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers, and Islamic villagers, who built villages outside of the cave entrance and used the cave for storage and for sheltering their herds. Given the short period of time for the mission, the project goals were to map the cave system with terrestrial laser scanning, the surrounding cultural resources with drone photogrammetry, and document a representational sample of cave art using photogrammetry, reflectance transformation imaging, and high-resolution photography with the intention of producing new highly detailed 2D and 3D representations of the cave system and selected areas of art.

Relevance for the conference: The workflow described in this presentation can be used as a model for anyone attempting to use visual and digital technology in cultural heritage documentation and archaeology.
Relevance for the session: Description of the Global Digital Heritage workflow to capture, process, and disseminate geospatial data and imagery.
Innovation: Efficient data capture and processing model that allows geospatial data and high resolution imagery to be processed into a wide range of 2D and 3D content for research and public education and integrated into various online platforms for viewing and dissemination.
References:
• Federman, A., M. Santana Quintero, S. Kretz, J. Gregg, M. Lengies, C. Ouimet, and J. Laliberte. “UAV PHOTGRAMMETRIC WORKFLOWS: A BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINE.” International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing & Spatial Information Sciences 42 (2017)
• Remondino, Fabio. “Heritage Recording and 3D Modeling with Photogrammetry and 3D Scanning.” Remote Sensing 3.6 (2011): 1104–1138
• Rüther, H., Held, C., Schröder R., Bhurtha, R., Wessels, S, ‘From Point Cloud to Textured Model, the Zamani Laser Scanning Pipeline in Heritage Documentation’, South African Journal of Geomatics, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012