Real-time Visualisation of Multiple Time dependent Reconstruction Hypotheses for a Cultural Heritage Site

Abstract

Virtual environments have commonly been used for the dissemination, education and public awareness of cultural heritage, owing to the medium's ability to provide an engaging and interactive exhibit. However, virtual environments have yet to be fully utilised as a tool to enhance the work flow for the archaeologist. When attempting to understand a particular cultural heritage site, a variety of data sources and technologies are employed, resulting in potentially conflicting hypotheses regarding the development of a site through time. It is particularly challenging to quantify the validity of a hypothesis without viewing it within the spatial and temporal context. This paper presents new interactive techniques for the exploration of such alternative interpretations for a large cultural heritage site. To illustrate the utility of the presented approach interpretations of St. Andrew's Monastic complex, Norwich, UK, are considered. The data set comprises of more than two hundred individual components, totalling in excess of five million triangles, ranging from 1258AD to present day. Techniques are presented to process the three dimensional models and utilise consumer level hardware to visualise it in real-time. All navigation is undertaken with a haptic interface, which aside from scene traversal permits different portions of space to be selected and for the objects occupying that space to be regressed or alternative reconstructions to be presented.