Developer(s) | since 2021: AG eHumanities & FCGLab, Institut for Computer Science, MLU Halle-Wittenberg 2009-2020 Forensic Computational Geometry Laboratory (FCGL), [1] IWR, Heidelberg University |
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Stable release | |
Repository | https://gitlab.com/fcgl/GigaMesh.git |
Written in | C++ |
Operating system | Linux , Windows 10 |
Available in | 1 languages |
List of languages English | |
Type | Graphics software |
License | GNU General Public License |
Website | https://gigamesh.eu |
The GigaMesh Software Framework is a free and open-source software for display, editing and visualization of 3D-data typically acquired with structured light or structure from motion. [3]
It provides numerous functions for analysis of archaeological objects like cuneiform tablets, ceramics [4] [5] or converted LiDAR data. [6] Typically applications are unwrappings (or rollouts), [7] profile cuts (or cross sections) [8] as well as visualizations of distances and curvature, which can be exported as raster graphics or vector graphics.
The retrieval of text in 3D like damaged cuneiform tablets or weathered medieval headstones [9] using Multi Scale Integral Invariant (MSII) [10] filtering is a core function of the software. Furthermore, small or faint surface details like fingerprints can be visualized. [11] [12] The polygonal meshes of the 3D-models can be inspected, cleaned and repaired to provide optimal filtering results. The repaired datasets are suitable for 3D printing and for digital publishing in a dataverse. [13]
The name "GigaMesh" refers to the processing of large 3D-datasets and relates intentionally to the mythical Sumerian king Gilgamesh and his heroic epic described on a set of clay tablets. [10] : 115 The central element of the logo is the cuneiform sign 𒆜 (kaskal) meaning street or road junction, which symbolizes the intersection of the humanities and computer science. The surrounding circle refers to the integral invariant computation using a spherical domain. The red color is derived from carmine, the color used by the Heidelberg University, where GigaMesh is developed.[ citation needed ]
The development began in 2009 and was inspired by the edition project Keilschrifttexte aus Assur literarischen Inhalts (KAL, cuneiform texts with literary content) of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. [11] In parallel it was applied within the Austrian Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for documentation of red-figure pottery. [8] Current projects are funded by the DFG and the BMBF for contextualization and analysis of seals and sealings of the Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel, [14] [15] where Thin Plate Splines are used for comparing sealings. [16] Analog to the developments for processing cuneiform tablets there are further approaches for adaption of the combined Computer Vision and Machine Learning methods for other Scripts in 3D. An example is the application within the Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan. [17]
In 2017 GigaMesh was tested by the DAI at an excavation in Guadalupe, near Trujillo, Honduras for immediate visualization of in-situ acquired findings with different 3D-scanners including a comparison with manual drawings. [18] Since then GigaMesh is permanently used by the excavation team, [19] their feedback led to numerous changes to the GUI, improving the user experience (UX). Additionally online tutorials are published having a focus on tasks required to compile excavation reports.
The Scanning for Syria (SfS) [20] project of the Leiden University used GigaMesh in 2018 for 3D reconstruction of molds of tablets lost in ar-Raqqa, Syria based on Micro-CT-scans. [21] [22] As a follow-up project the TU Delft acquired further Micro-CT-scans for virtually extracting clay tablets still wrapped into clay envelopes, which are unopened for thousands of years. [23] [24] In May 2020 the SfS project won the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage of the Europa Nostra in the category research. [25] [26]
A first version (190416) for Windows was released in preparation for presentations about new functions shown at the international CAA 2019. [27]
The command line interface of GigaMesh is well suited to process large amounts of 3D-measurement data within repositories. This was demonstrated with almost 2.000 cuneiform tablets of the Hilprecht Collection of the Jena University, which were processed and digitally published as benchmarkdatabase (HeiCuBeDa) [28] for machine learning as well as database of images including 3D- and meta-data (HeiCu3Da) [29] using CC BY licenses. [30] A baseline for period classification of tablets was established using a Geometric Neural Network being a Convolutional Neural Network typically used for 3D-datasets. [31] [32] In 2023, an extension of the dataset was published containing extracted images of cuneiform characters, cuneiform lines and individual annotated cuneiform characters. The annotations are made available together with the renderings with metadata as CSV and a knowledge graph (RDF). These developments were created in the context of the DFG project "Digital Edition of Cuneiform Texts from Haft Tappeh" in Mainz. The acronym MaiCuBeDa is derived from the project location. [33] This provided the first results for the localization of cuneiform characters and their wedges, which show that MSII rendering improves the recognition quality for photos. [34] [35]
The Louvre showed GigaMesh based rollouts of an Aryballos from the collection of the KFU Graz representing the use of digital methods for research on pottery of ancient Greece within the CVA project, which had its 100th anniversary in 2019. Renderings of the rollouts were on display in the second half of 2019 in the display case named L’ère du numèrique et de l’imagerie scientifique (the digital era and scientific imaging). [36]
Version 191219 supports Texture maps common for 3D-data captured using photogrammetry. This allows processing and in particular unwrapping of objects acquired with Structure-from-Motion widely used for documentation of Cultural Heritage and in archaeology.[ citation needed ]
The Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Japan adapted GigaMesh for documentation and rollouts of vessels and published a tutorial, [37] which was used to implement the workflow for ceramics of the Jōmon period within the Togariishi Museum of Jōmon Archaeology. [38]
In April 2020 the source code was published on GitLab and the license changed from freeware to the GPL. Version 200529 allows for the first time to apply the MSII filter using the Graphical User Interface to visualize the smallest details like fingerprints. [39] The DFG funded edition of texts from Haft Tepe project [40] is using MSII filtered renderings of tablets in the so-called fat-cross arrangement of side views. [41]
GigaMesh is increasingly being used in areas that have methodological overlap with archaeology, such as geoengineering for the analysis of seashells. [42]
Primarily the Polygon File Format is supported and used to store additional information from the processing. This is not possible with the — additionally supported — Wavefront OBJ due to its specification. It is possible to export meshes in the glTF fileformat. The marking of interpolated points and triangles by filling voids in the triangular grid represents meta-information to be captured e.g. in the context of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in Germany. Other metadata such as inventory numbers, material, and hyperlinks or Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) can be captured. In addition, there is the ability to calculate topological metrics that describe the quality of a 3D measurement dataset. [43]
A digital elevation model (DEM) or digital surface model (DSM) is a 3D computer graphics representation of elevation data to represent terrain or overlaying objects, commonly of a planet, moon, or asteroid. A "global DEM" refers to a discrete global grid. DEMs are used often in geographic information systems (GIS), and are the most common basis for digitally produced relief maps. A digital terrain model (DTM) represents specifically the ground surface while DEM and DSM may represent tree top canopy or building roofs.
Computational archaeology describes computer-based analytical methods for the study of long-term human behaviour and behavioural evolution. As with other sub-disciplines that have prefixed 'computational' to their name, the term is reserved for methods that could not realistically be performed without the aid of a computer.
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform scripts are marked by and named for the characteristic wedge-shaped impressions which form their signs. Cuneiform is the earliest known writing system and was originally developed to write the Sumerian language of southern Mesopotamia.
Scientific visualization is an interdisciplinary branch of science concerned with the visualization of scientific phenomena. It is also considered a subset of computer graphics, a branch of computer science. The purpose of scientific visualization is to graphically illustrate scientific data to enable scientists to understand, illustrate, and glean insight from their data. Research into how people read and misread various types of visualizations is helping to determine what types and features of visualizations are most understandable and effective in conveying information.
Assyriology, also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing. The field covers Pre Dynastic Mesopotamia, Sumer, the early Sumero-Akkadian city-states, the Akkadian Empire, Ebla, the Akkadian and Imperial Aramaic speaking states of Assyria, Babylonia and the Sealand Dynasty, the migrant foreign dynasties of southern Mesopotamia, including the Gutians, Amorites, Kassites, Arameans, Suteans and Chaldeans. Assyriology can be included to cover Neolithic pre-Dynastic cultures dating to as far back as 8000 BC, to the Islamic Conquest of the 7th century AD, so the topic is significantly wider than that implied by the root "Assyria".
An aryballos was a small spherical or globular flask with a narrow neck used in Ancient Greece. It was used to contain perfume or oil, and is often depicted in vase paintings being used by athletes during bathing. In these depictions, the vessel is at times attached by a strap to the athlete's wrist, or hung by a strap from a peg on the wall.
In radiography, X-ray microtomography uses X-rays to create cross-sections of a physical object that can be used to recreate a virtual model without destroying the original object. It is similar to tomography and X-ray computed tomography. The prefix micro- is used to indicate that the pixel sizes of the cross-sections are in the micrometre range. These pixel sizes have also resulted in creation of its synonyms high-resolution X-ray tomography, micro-computed tomography, and similar terms. Sometimes the terms high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and micro-CT are differentiated, but in other cases the term high-resolution micro-CT is used. Virtually all tomography today is computed tomography.
3D scanning is the process of analyzing a real-world object or environment to collect three dimensional data of its shape and possibly its appearance. The collected data can then be used to construct digital 3D models.
Eurographics is a Europe-wide professional computer graphics association. The association supports its members in advancing the state of the art in computer graphics and related fields such as multimedia, scientific visualization and human–computer interaction.
Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum is an international research project for documentation of ancient ceramics. Its original ideal target content: any ceramic from any ancient location during any archaeological period, proved impossible of realization and was soon restricted to specific times and periods. As the project expanded from an original six nations: England, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Italy, to include the current 28, the topic specializations of each country were left up to the commission for that country. The French commission, serves in an advisory position.
Thin plate splines (TPS) are a spline-based technique for data interpolation and smoothing. "A spline is a function defined by polynomials in a piecewise manner." They were introduced to geometric design by Duchon. They are an important special case of a polyharmonic spline. Robust Point Matching (RPM) is a common extension and shortly known as the TPS-RPM algorithm.
The Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing is a scientific research institute of the Heidelberg University, Germany. It centralizes scientific activity and promotes research and work in scientific computing. Founded in 1987 by the Heidelberg University and the state of Baden-Württemberg, IWR participates in joint project and cooperations with industry in Germany as well as abroad. As a research institute with about 380 staff, IWR is considered one of the world's largest research centers for scientific computing.
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of a surface of an object in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, and polygons in a simulated 3D space.
Polynomial texture mapping (PTM), also known as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), is a technique of imaging and interactively displaying objects under varying lighting conditions to reveal surface phenomena. The data acquisition method is Single Camera Multi Light (SCML).
Amira is a software platform for visualization, processing, and analysis of 3D and 4D data. It is being actively developed by Thermo Fisher Scientific in collaboration with the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB), and commercially distributed by Thermo Fisher Scientific — together with its sister software Avizo.
Convolutional neural network (CNN) is a regularized type of feed-forward neural network that learns feature engineering by itself via filters optimization. Vanishing gradients and exploding gradients, seen during backpropagation in earlier neural networks, are prevented by using regularized weights over fewer connections. For example, for each neuron in the fully-connected layer, 10,000 weights would be required for processing an image sized 100 × 100 pixels. However, applying cascaded convolution kernels, only 25 neurons are required to process 5x5-sized tiles. Higher-layer features are extracted from wider context windows, compared to lower-layer features.
The Sabouroff head is a Late Archaic Greek marble sculpture. It is dated to c. 550–525 BC. This head of a Kouros was named after Peter Alexandrovich Saburov, a collector of ancient Greek sculpture and antiquities. It is 23 centimeters in height. The sculpture is currently located in the Antikensammlung Berlin and allegedly from Attica or Aegina. There are conjectures that it may also have been from Caria in Asia Minor.
Kemune is an archaeological site discovered during a low water level in the reservoir of the Mosul Dam in the Nineveh Governorate, part of the Kurdistan region of Iraq in 2013. The Mitanni era city was destroyed by an earthquake around 1350 BC.
Hubert Mara is an Austrian Computer Scientist who specializes in Archaeoinformatics and the application of methods from computer science to the humanities, and thus a combination of these fields.
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