Virtual Reality Recording of Archaeological Artifacts: The Diniacopoulos Collection

Abstract

The field of virtual reality is quickly growing across many disciplines, if none more important than the field of archaeology and cultural heritage. Numerous artifacts are uncovered each year by archaeological excavations around the world, and only a select few are displayed and recorded in museums while the rest remain hidden away in storage facilities. The use of virtual reality photography provides a potential solution to this problem. This projects aims to optimize a computational workflow for digitally documenting these artifacts through an in depth analysis of the Diniacopoulos Collection of Greek and Egyptian artifacts in collaboration with the Art Conservation department at Queen’s University. The Diniacopoulos Collection of artifacts has been held by Queen’s since their donation in 2001 by the estate of Olga Diniacopoulos. This project combines studio Photogrammetry with a method known as Focus Stacking to optimize the quality of each image. First, images of each object will be used to generate scaled photogrammetric models in Agisoft Photoscan. The same images used to create the 3D models can also be used to create lower-resolution virtual reality movies that are easily shared on websites using the GardenGnome ObjectVR software. Utilizing another growing industry, 3D printing, takes this method one step further. 3D printing archaeological finds provides people with a tactile experience with the artifacts that would otherwise be kept safe inside museum cases or warehouses where the public has no access. These methods have applications is not only archaeology, but in a number of collaborative fields.