A method for presenting high resolution, archaeological 3D scan data in a narrative context

This paper outlines a methodology and workflow used to produce interactive 3D components for web applications. The method is prototyped in the 'Explorer' content management tools, an ontological database of archaeological information developed as part of 'CIPHER', IST project. The method uses high resolution 3D laser scans produced in situ and photographic texture and reference information captured simultaneously. The method introduces techniques from the domain of 3D gaming to produce interactive walkthroughs of heritage sites optimised for web delivery. The 3D presentation method described in the paper allows users of the walkthrough to interact with the underlying knowledge base of archaeological information. Nodes within the 3D scene are used to activate dynamic hyperlinked queries of the ontology database. This method allows features in the scene to act as queries against a thesaurus of archaeological terms and for associated descriptive narratives associated with those terms. A novel way of optimising 3D scanned data is used, involving 'baking' an image of the full 3D scanned model onto a lower detail 'decimated' version. This approach has the potential to make 3D scanned data more useful in applications like archaeology where it is desirable, but computationally difficult to depict monuments and objects at the full resolution of the original scan.