A guide for Archaeological Sites Using Augmented Reality and Digital Story Telling

Project leaders

Roberto Gabrielli, Ahmed Aleroud

Agreement

GIORDANIA - HCST/NCRD - The Higher Council for Science and Technology /National Centre for Research and Development

Call

CNR/HCST-NCRD biennio 2018-2019 2018-2019

Department

Social sciences and humanities, cultural heritage

Thematic area

Social sciences and humanities, cultural heritage

Status of the project

New

Research proposal

Since the documentation phase is one of the most important phases in everything, it is more than important as well in the archaeology and the conservation field specially that we got all the archaeological monuments and objects from the past generation and it is our duty to preserve them in an excellent condition to pass them to the next generation. Jordan is a rich area with the archaeological areas including Petra city which is one of the seven wonders, the main problem that the most sites are missing the documentation. Therefore, it is very important to make the documentation steps for the most important archaeological sites in Jordan generating related graphics and alphanumeric data.

There are many international archaeological missions are working in Jordan, it is very important to create a central uniform graphic and alphanumeric database for all missions. The general fragility of structures and the alternation of the area of different international research groups requires a coordinated and homogeneous organization of the large number of scientific data produced and processed each year by the various research groups. It is also urgent to create an overall graphical archive that allows to track the deterioration of structures over time.

Therefore, the primary activity will be coordinating a documentation project aimed both at the conservation of the important archaeological area and at the organization of data from the various archaeological missions. Which can be considered as a guide for the management and organizational structure of the Archaeological missions to create a center for documentation of the archaeological areas. In addition to creating the technical-scientific structure set up with computer labs for the management and processing of graphic and alphanumeric data, there will be also an intensive training of the staff dedicated to this structure.

The scientific activity will mainly focus on the development of innovative methodologies, integrated for the modeling of the main monuments of Petra and of the whole Jordan, by building a complete data set of areas investigated for both documentation and conservation purposes as well as designing virtual paths aimed at allowing a better enjoyment of the Jordanian cultural heritage.

Also, this research aims to provide visitors of any archaeological sites with a rich information that related to any archaeological monuments using Augmented Reality (AR). Visitors can use their smartphones as guide in each archaeological site to retrieve a related information without any physically interaction with these physical items. A digital story telling component is also important to visualize different stories about the project.


To address the mentioned issues:
1. Collecting experimental data.
It is intended to establish acquisition protocols in the three-dimensional space, which is most important for geometric, physical, chemical, historical-archaeological information and material degradation. In collaboration with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, we will study the measurement methods that will become an operational model applicable to all international missions operating in Jordan. This procedure will be crucial for creating a homogeneous database that will be used in the future as a comparative element in monitoring the degradation of single monuments and entire archaeological areas.

2. Representation algorithms.
The development of information technology and the modern information processing technologies produce great innovative processes for the collection of spatial information and their representation. These technological challenges will help us in the coming years with greater development of Hardware and Software. Obviously, these technological processes should be guided and coordinated, and not just suffered. Therefore, the work that will be carried out in close connection between the Jordanian and Italian research groups will be to define representative standards that can be upgraded over time and exported to different archaeological contexts, and then integrated with variables arising from new problems that can be present in the different scenario.

3. Descriptive models in space
The elaboration of these models could be used in educational paths and virtual enjoyment in travelling exhibitions and touristic routes, even for people with reduced physical abilities or disabilities (e. g. blindness). Such templates can also be used to deploy technology-based tablet or smartphone viewing systems for a touristic use, with tools that can be rented at visitor center facilities or on app distribution networks. In this context, "Augmented Reality" (AR) visualization methods could be developed for the description of the most important monuments in Jordan. With AR, it is possible to draw directly on the graphic and alphanumerical archives created for the documentation and description of the monument. Obviously, access will be checked and allowed through appropriate privileges based on the different types of users (tourist or professional). Such access types may have a higher level depending on the needs or interest of the user, and his or her interest in wanting to see more or less detailed information.

We will implement a new android application. The main function of this applications is to use mobile device camera to capture images from the surrounding area in the archaeological site and determine the location of the visitor using the GPS sensor in the mobile. The captured images in concurrent with-it location will be sent to a server that host the content based information retrieval system. Since we need a content base IR system, we will use Vuforia Target Management System or an open source such as ARToolkit SDK as our IR system that contain all the monuments of the archaeological site images with their Geo-tag locations including some alphanumeric data.

Research goals

Jordan's rich past left to us many wonderful archaeological sites that's belong to many ancient civilizations. Even we have those amazing sites but, the main problem that the most sites are missing the documentation which enables us to physically preserve a cultural object, and enables us to understand and preserve the history, especially when the object, for whatever reasons, becomes no longer physically available. Therefore, it is really important to start doing the documentation to all the archaeological sites in Jordan.
The importance of those sites made them an attractive to different international missions and researchers around the world. Each mission is doing their excavations and research without any collaboration between them and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, this led to have sites without documentation or with out of date documentation. Therefore, it is very important to introduce an operational and centralized model which must be applicable to all international missions operating in Jordan. This step will introduce a documentation for all the sites in Jordan and keep those documentation up to date always, as well it will make the international mission easier since they could check the documentation whenever they want.
Since Italian researchers had a significant role in preserving many archaeological sites around the world and Jordanian as locals know (Jordan) best, It will be a great opportunity to work together Jordanian and Italian as a team.

Last update: 20/04/2024