Abstract
Abstract. Although underwater photogrammetry has become widely adopted, there are still significant unresolved issues that are worthy of attention. This article focuses on the 3D model generation of underwater shipwrecks and intends explicitly to address the problem of dealing with sub-optimal datasets. Even if the definition of best practices and standards to be adopted during the acquisition phase appears to be crucial, there is a massive amount of data gathered so far by professionals and the scientific community all over the world that cannot be ignored. The compelling idea is to attempt to achieve the best reconstruction results possible, even from sub-optimal or less-than-ideal image datasets. This work focuses on the investigation of different strategies and approaches for balancing the quality of the photogrammetric products, without neglecting their reliability concerning the surveyed object. The case study of this research is the Mandalay MHT, a 34 m long steel-hulled auxiliary schooner that sank in 1966 and now lies in the Biscayne National Park (Florida - USA). The dataset has been provided by the Submerged Resources Center (SRC) of the US National Park Service, in order to develop an experimental image enhancement method functional to the virtualization and visualization of the generated products, as a part of a sustainable, affordable, and reliable method of studying submerged artefacts and sites. The original images have been processed using different image enhancement approaches, and the outputs have been compared and analysed.
Highlights
Underwater environments have long received the attention of the scientific community across disciplines
Even if a precise survey is important for underwater archaeology, the survey itself must link the archaeological knowledge to the surveyed geometry
A first point concerns the generation of the 3D models and the related metric products, which is related to best practices and standards adopted during the acquisition phase
Summary
Underwater environments have long received the attention of the scientific community across disciplines. A first point concerns the generation of the 3D models and the related metric products, which is related to best practices and standards adopted during the acquisition phase (e.g. overlap, camera calibration, radiometric correction, integration with data from different sources). One of the final aims of this work is to provide a correct strategy and a useful pipeline for obtaining metrically controlled and radiometrically consistent products, aiming at the virtualization and visualization of the generated products (both point clouds and textured meshes). Those mentioned above can be used in online repositories and for VR and AR tours, providing a sustainable, affordable, and reliable way of studying submerged artefacts and sites
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