Computer based acquisition of archaeological finds: the first step towards automatic classification

Robert Sablatnig, Christian Menard

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 1996, 7, 429-446

Abstract

During excavations a large number of pottery sherds may be found. These sherds are photographed, measured, drawn and catalogued. Currently, all this work is done by hand, equating to a lot of routine work for the archaeologist. In this paper, two acquisition methods for archaeological finds are proposed, forming the first step towards automatic classification, that could help the archaeologist in their work and automate the archival process. Firstly, we present an overview of existing methods for archaeological image acquisition. These systems are half-automated, so the amount of work has not really been reduced. Next we focus on the acquisition methods to minimize failures in the output and to automate this process completely. In order to get 3D-information of a sherd, we use two different and representative methods, in particular, shape from stereo and shape from structured light for providing a 3D-surface representation of a sherd. Furthermore, we discuss a fusion of these two methods for an archaeological application and finally, the outlook for a computer based automatic classification of archaeological finds is given.

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