initial services implementation report

D13.2: Initial services implementation report

Authors: Matteo Dellepiane, CNR Carlo Meghini, CNR

Ariadne is funded by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme.

ARIADNED13.2(Public)

Version:1.4(final) 7thOctober2015

Authors: MatteoDellepiane,CNR

CarloMeghini,CNR

Contributingpartners: FrancoNiccolucci,PIN

RobertoScopigno,CNR

HellaHollander,DANS

JulianRichards,ADS

HollyWright,ADS

PhillipGerth,DAI

BrunoFanini,CNR

ARIADNE is a project funded by the European Commission under the Community’sSeventh Framework Programme, contract no. FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2012-1-313193.The views and opinions expressed in this report are the sole responsibility of theauthorsanddonotnecessarilyreflecttheviewsoftheEuropeanCommission.

ARIADNED.13.2(Final)

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1 Tableofcontents1 Tableofcontents.....................................................................................................................3

2 Documenthistory...................................................................................................................4

3 Introduction.............................................................................................................................5

4 ServicesprovidedwithintheARIADNECatalogue......................................................5

5 ServicesprovidedbyARIADNEPartners........................................................................25.1 Servicesfordataresources.......................................................................................................35.1.1 UniversityofYork:ArchaeologyDataService..........................................................................35.1.2 DANS:DataArchivingandNetworkedServices......................................................................45.1.3 Arachne......................................................................................................................................................65.1.4 DigitalCollaboratoryforCulturalDendrochronology(DCCD)..........................................7

5.2 ServicesforLanguageresources.............................................................................................85.2.1 iDAI.vocab.................................................................................................................................................95.2.2 iDAI.gazetteer.......................................................................................................................................10

6 ServicesdevelopedwithintheARIADNEproject......................................................116.1 VisualMediainArchaeologicalcollections......................................................................116.1.1 The2Drealmofvisualdata...........................................................................................................126.1.2 Full3Drepresentations...................................................................................................................176.1.3 Videos......................................................................................................................................................21

6.2 ServiceunderimplementationinARIADNE.....................................................................216.2.1 ARIADNEVisualMediaService....................................................................................................216.2.2 LandscapeFactory.............................................................................................................................24

7 ConclusionsandFutureimprovements.......................................................................267.1 AfterthoughtsontheACDM...................................................................................................277.2 Longtermpreservationservices.........................................................................................277.3 Acceptancetesting....................................................................................................................287.4 Futureimplementationandimprovements....................................................................28

8 References..............................................................................................................................29


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2 Documenthistory

Date Activity Contributors

7thOctober2015 Qualitycontrol,lastchanges CNR,ADS,PIN

September2015 QualityControlReview HollyWright

26thAugust2015 ContributionbyITABC,Section6.2.2,andIDAI

CNR,DANS,IDAI

28thJuly2015 Revisionbypartners,addedSection5.1.4

All

June2015 FirstversionoftheDeliverable MatteoDellepiane,CarloMeghini,RobertoScopigno

April-May2015 Initialdraft MatteoDellepiane


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3 IntroductionThis document gives an overview of the initial implementation of the services of the ARIADNEinfrastructure,whicharetheobjectiveofWorkPackage13(WP13).

WP13isinformedbytheoutputofWP2(mainlyTask2.1,UserneedsandcommunitybuildingandTask2.2,SpecialInterestGroups),andparallelsthedataintegrationeffortinWP12.Moreover,theservices to be made available within WP13 will also incorporate those developed within WP14throughWP17.AstheseWPsarestillunderdevelopment,theirserviceswillbeincorporatedintoalaterdeliverable.

ThemaingoalofARIADNEistobringtogetherexistingarchaeologicalresearchdatainfrastructures,andintegratetheirdataandservices,therebyenablingresearcherstoaccessthedatasetsandtakeadvantage of the resulting services at item and collection level. These services will includefunctionality that is already available, andwill be offered to communitieswhomay not currentlyhaveaccesstoit,butwillalsoincludenewfunctionalitycreatedad-hocbythepartnersonthebasisof therequirementsthatwerecollectedatthebeginningof theproject.Themainmodalityof theimplementation of this new functionality will be a web-based service, although other types ofservices(localtools,guidelines)willbeintegratedaswell.

ThisDeliverableisorganizedasfollows:Section4givesashortdescriptionoftheservicesthatrelyontheARIADNECatalogue.Section5offersanoverviewof theServicesprovidedby theARIADNEpartners,whichwillbeadaptedandintegratedintheInfrastructure.Section6presentstheServicesdevelopedfromspecificallyfortheInfrastructure,togetherwithadescriptionoftheircurrentstateof completion and the first steps of evaluation. Finally, Section 7 outlines the conclusions and aroadmapforWP13untiltheendoftheproject.

The Deliverable will refer, where necessary, to D13.1, which provides a design of the services,grouped by functional similarity. The implementation described here covers all the use casesproposedintheDeliverable,takingintoaccountthestructureoftheInfrastructurethatiscurrentlyunderimplementation.

4 ServicesprovidedwithintheARIADNECatalogueTheARIADNECatalogue isbasedon theARIADNECatalogueDataModel (ACDM),whichhasbeendeveloped to describe the archaeological resources made available within the ARIADNEinfrastructuretotheresearcherswishingtoaccessandusethem.

AsshowninFigure1,thecentralnotionoftheACDMistheclassArchaeologicalResourcethathasasinstancesthemainresourcesdescribedintheCatalogue.Theseresourcesarecategorizedin:

• data resources, representing the various types of data containers that can be discovered,accessed and possibly integrated on the ARIADNE infrastructure. Data resources arecategorizedincollections,datasets,databasesandGIS.

• services,representingtheservicesmadeavailablebytheARIADNEinfrastructure;

Figure1:TheUMLDiagramdescribingtheACDM(extractedfromtheSpecificationdocumentversion2.5.5)

Collection

DataFormat

DigitalObjectDesc

hasAttachedObject

MetadataRecord

Vocabulary

hasMetadataRecord

usesVocabulary

usesVocabulary

AttachedDocuments

hasSimpleDigitalType

Service applyTo

DataResource

ArchaeologicalResource

LanguageResource

hasRecordStructure

Database

TextualDocument

GazetteerhasItemMetadataStructure

dct:hasParts

Mapping

hasAttachedDocument

MetadataSchema

MetadataElement

hasElements

conformsTo

1..*

1..*

1..* 0..*

1..*

0..*

1..*

0..*

1

0..*

EncodingLanguage

expressedIn

hasSchema

DBSchema

isRealizedBy

1

1..*

0..1 1..*

1..*0..*

1..*

1..*

0..*

0..*

1..*

1..*0..*

1 1..*

1..*

1

1

1..*

dct:isPartOf

1..*

dcat:Catalogdct:isPartOf

foaf:Agent dct:publisher/dct:contributor/:owner/ …

Distribution dcat:distribution

1..*

1

GIS

from

0..*

0..*

to

Licence

hasLicence

dct:publisher0..*

1

MetadataAttribute

hasAttribute

1

0..* Version

hasVersion

hasVersion

1

1

0..*0..*

hasVersion

0..*

1

DataSet

dcat:Dataset dcat:Distribution

hasVersion 1..*1

skos:Concept

dct:isPartOf

hasMetadataRecord

0..*

0..*

1..*

0..*

AriadneConcept

1..* 0..*native-subject

ariadne-subject1..*

0..*

provided-subject derived-subject

dct:publisher 1*

0..*1

0..*1

1..*

0..1

dct:hasParts

• language resources, representing vocabularies, ontologies, metadata schemas, mappings

(between language resources in general) and gazetteers that are available within the

ARIADNEinfrastructure.

Please refer to the specification of the ACDM (ARIADNE internal deliverable) for a detailed

description.

The search and retrieval functionalities for all kinds of resources described in the Catalogue are

currentlyunderdevelopmentinthecontextofWP12.

The ACDM defines a rich structure to discover the large number of resources provided by the

ARIADNE infrastructure, either by querying the Catalogue or by browsing the information space

describedinit.Giventhesizeofthatinformationspace,itisexpectedthatmostofthequerieswill

returnalargeresult.Forthesamereasons,browsingoftheinformationspacewillbedifficult.It is

therefore paramount to create the discovery service with powerful visualization functionality,

allowingusers to consume thequery results and tobrowse theARIADNE information space in an

easyandusefulway.

To this end, a set of visualization services (in addition to the basic search and retrieval

functionalities)willbemadeavailablewithinWP13forexploringqueryresultsandforbrowsingthe

ARIADNE information space. These services will provide the front-end to the back-end services

implementedbyWP12;thereforetheirimplementationistheresultofatightcollaborationbetween

WP12andWP13.Theseserviceswillhavetocovertheusecases7.1,7.2,7.3,7.5and7.6described

inD13.1.

Morespecifically,twomainserviceswillbeavailablewhendiscoveringDataResources:

• Spatial display of query results: since the data resources are associatedwith spatial data

(expressed in terms of GPS coordinates, or postal address) it is possible to visualize the

resultofaqueryonamap(liketheexampleshowninFigure2).Thesamedisplayisavailable

inthecontextofabrowsesession,forinstancewhennavigatingacollection.

Figure2:Anexampleofspatialvisualizationofaqueryresult


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• Timeline display of a query result: as temporal information (timeframe, generic period) is

also available for any resource described in the Catalogue, results may be visualized

graphicallyonatimelineaswell,asshowninFigure3.Again,thesamekindofvisualization

can be obtained by browsing a certain region of the information space, for instance all

resourcesavailableataninstitution.

Figure3:Anexampleoftimelinevisualizingseveralelementsinagraphicalway

TheservicesaboveprovidefunctionalitieswhicharealsooutlinedinseveralusecasesinDeliverable

13.1. Both visualization services are currently under implementation within the context of the

creationoftheARIADNEPortal.

5 ServicesprovidedbyARIADNEPartnersTheaimof theARIADNEproject isnotonly to integrate thedata fromavarietyof archaeological

datasets, but to also share services that partners have already implemented and tested. For this

reason,asurveyoftheavailableserviceswasconductedduringYear1oftheproject,alsoincluding

anynewservicethatmaybedevelopedbyanypartnerduringtheprojectlifetime.

Followingtheresultsofthesurvey,thepotentialservicesweregroupedinthreecategoriesinorder

tobettersteertheirintegrationandtheirprovisionthroughtheARIADNEPortal.

Thethreecategoriesarerelatedtothetypesofresourcesonwhichaservicewillact:dataresources,

languageresourcesoritems.EachcategoryofserviceisdescribedinaseparateSectionbelow.


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5.1 Servicesfordataresources

DataresourcesplayacentralroleintheARIADNEinfrastructure.Hence,theservicestocreateand

maintaindataresourcesplayamajorroleintheinfrastructure.Theseservicesaccountforusecases

7.4and7.6inDeliverable13.1.

Currently, several of the partners provide services for data resources: some of these services are

already under integration in ARIADNE, while others are currently under consideration for full

integrationlaterintheproject(seeSection7fordetails).

In the following, a short description of the services is provided, together with some information

about the partner that will maintain the service and collaborate during the integration with the

ARIADNEportal.

5.1.1 UniversityofYork:ArchaeologyDataService

Typeofservice:Datadepositandpreservationservice

ShortDescription:TheArchaeologyDataServiceisthenationaldigitaldataarchiveforarchaeologytheUK and aworld-leading datamanagement centre for archaeology and heritage sector. Itwas

establishedin1996andnowcomprisessome15staff.ItishostedbytheDepartmentofArchaeology

in theUniversityof York. It supports research, learningand teachingwith freeonlinehighquality

anddependabledigitalresourcesandpreservestheminthelongterm.TheADSoperatesaccording

to the OAIS model for digital archives and holds the Data Seal of Approval, the internationally

recognized qualitymark for trusted digital repositories. In 2012 the ADSwas awarded theDigital

Preservation Coalition’s Decennial Award for the most outstanding contribution to digital

preservationofthelastdecade.ADS-Easyprovidesanonlinecostingtoolanddatadepositservice.

Homepage:archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

Firstrelease:1997

LastUpdate:N/A

Providedby:ArchaeologyDataService

Authentication:N/A

Integrationmode:theservicewillbeintegratedwithintheARIADNEinfrastructureviaadirectlink.ADS services will also be integrated with the preservation services provided by DANS (see next

subsection).


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Figure4:AnexampleofadatasethostedbytheArchaeologyDataService

5.1.2 DANS:DataArchivingandNetworkedServices

Typeofservice:Datadepositandpreservationservice

ShortDescription:

The e-depot for Dutch archaeology is accommodated at DANS, the national digital research data

archive for theNetherlands.Awealthofdigitalarchaeologicalexcavationdatasuchasmaps, field

drawings, photographs, tables and publications is accessible via EASY, DANS’ online archiving

(deposit, preservation and reuse) service. DANS operates according to theOAISmodel for digital

archivesandholdstheDataSealofApproval,theinternationallyrecognizedqualitymarkfortrusted

digitalrepositories.

DANSwasestablishedin2005,withpredecessorsdatingbackto1964,andnowcomprisessome45

staff.DANS'sactivitiesarecentredaround3coreservices:dataarchiving,data reuse, trainingand

consultancy.Drivenbydata,DANSensures the further improvementof sustainedaccess todigital

researchdatawithitsservicesandparticipationin(inter)nationalprojectsandnetworks.DANSisan


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institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and co-founded by the

NetherlandsOrganizationforScientificResearch(NW0).

Homepage:dans.knaw.nl

Firstrelease:2005

LastUpdate:N/A

Providedby:DANS

Authentication:N/A

Integrationmode:theservicewillbeintegratedwithARIADNEinfrastructureviaadirectlink.DANSserviceswillalsobeintegratedwiththepreservationservicesprovidedbyADS(seenextsubsection)

Figure5:anexampleofadatasethostedbyDANSservice


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5.1.3 ArachneTypeofservice:Datadepositandpreservationservice

ShortDescription: Arachne is thecentralObjectdatabaseof theGermanArchaeological Institute

(DAI)andtheArchaeologicalInstituteoftheUniversityofCologne.

Arachne is intendedtoprovidearchaeologistsandClassicistswitha free internetresearchtool for

quicklysearchinghundredsofthousandsofrecordsonobjectsandtheirattributes.Thiscombinesan

ongoingprocessofdigitizingtraditionaldocumentation(storedonmediawhichareboththreatened

by decay and largely unexplored) with the production of new digital object and graphic data.

Wherever possible, Arachne follows a paradigm of highly structurized object-metadata which is

mapped onto the CIDOC-CRM, to addressmachine-readablemetadata strategies of the Semantic

Web.This“structuredworld”ofArachnerequireslargeeffortsintimeandmoneyandistherefore

only possible for privileged areas of data.While there is an ever-increasing range of new, “born

digital” data, in reality only a small effort-per-object ratio can be applied. It therefore requires a

“low-threshold” processing structurewhich is located in the “unstructuredworld” of Arachne. All

digital (graphic and textual) information is secure on a Tivoli Storage System (featuring long-term

multiple redundandancy) anddistributedonline through theStorageAreaNetwork inColognevia

AFS.

Homepage:http://arachne.dainst.org

FirstRelease:1995

LastUpdate:2015

Providedby:DAI,Germany

Authentication:Notneededfordownloadingandbrowsingthedata;dataentryandimportonlyfor

authenticatedusers

Integration andother notes:This servicewill be accessible throughARIADNE. The authenticationprotocolcouldbeintegratedwiththeauthenticationinARIADNEPortal.

Figure6:anexampleofadatasetinArachneservice


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5.1.4 DigitalCollaboratoryforCulturalDendrochronology(DCCD)

Typeofservice:Servicesoftwaretooltosetupadigitalrepositoryfordendrochronologicaldata

ShortDescription: To improveEuropean integrationof dendrochronological data,DANShasnow

made it possible for others to use the same software as the DCCD-repository of DANS, and use

existing components to create their own dendrochronological archive that is also ARIADNE

compatible. This open source software is available from the following GitHub repository:

https://github.com/DANS-KNAW/dccd-webui

The DCCD software is an online digital archiving system for dendrochronological data. A recent

versionofthissoftware(system)isdeployedas'DigitalCollaboratoryforCulturalDendrochronology'

(DCCD)athttp://dendro.dans.knaw.nl.

MoreinformationabouttheDigitalCollaboratoryforCulturalDendrochronology(DCCD)projectcan

befoundhere:http://vkc.library.uu.nl/vkc/dendrochronology.

DANSwasestablishedin2005,withpredecessorsdatingbackto1964,andnowcomprisessome45

staff.DANS'sactivitiesarecentredaround3coreservices:dataarchiving,datareuse,trainingand

consultancy.Drivenbydata,DANSensures the further improvementof sustainedaccess todigital

researchdatawithitsservicesandparticipationin(inter)nationalprojectsandnetworks.DANSisan

institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and co-founded by the

NetherlandsOrganizationforScientificResearch(NW0).

TheDCCDistheprimaryarchaeological/historicaltree-ring(meta)datanetworkexistinginEurope.It

becameoperationalin2011.WithintheDCCDBelgian,Danish,Dutch,German,Latvian,Polish,and

Spanish laboratories have joined data in amanner that suits their shared and individual research

agendas. In its present state the DCCD contains measurement series of different wood species

derivedfromobjectsandsitesdatingbetween6000BCandpresent.Alldatasetsaredescribedwith

very detailedmetadata according to the newly developed international dendrochronological data

standardTRiDaS(Jansmaetal.2010).Thecollectionisderivedbyresearchfromarchaeologicalsites

(including old landscapes), shipwrecks, historical architecture andmobile heritage (e.g. paintings,

furniture).

Homepage:http://dendro.dans.knaw.nl/

LastUpdate:2015

Providedby:DANS

Authentication:Neededtoinsertandbrowsedata

Integration andother notes:This servicewill be accessible throughARIADNE. The authenticationprotocolcouldbeintegratedwiththeauthenticationinARIADNEPortal.


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Figure7:thehomepageofDCCDservice

5.2 ServicesforLanguageresources

As explained in Section 4, Language resources represent vocabularies, ontologies, metadata

schemas,mappings(betweenlanguageresources ingeneral)andgazetteers.Whilethedescription

of this typeof resource is still under finalization, some serviceshavebeen found that arealready

available.TheywillbeintegratedintotheARIADNEinfrastructure.

Theseservicesare linkedtotheusecases7.4and7.6ofDeliverable13.1,wherethegeneralterm

collectionwasused.GiventhenewstructureoftheACDM,theseservicesareintendedtogivethe

possibilityfortheusertoaccessandpossiblyaddnewlanguageresources.

In the following, a short description of the services is provided, together with some information

about the partner that will maintain the service and collaborate during the integration with the

ARIADNEportal.


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5.2.1 iDAI.vocab

Typeofservice:GermanThesaurusofArchaeologicalConceptswithsupportformultilingualism

ShortDescription:ThenewDAIThesaurusofArchaeologicalConceptswasdesignedfromtheonset

asathesaurusofGermanwordsandphraseswithsignificantmultilingualsupport.Thecoreofthe

thesaurus isa listof concepts related to thedomainofarchaeology (nouns,verbs, less frequently

adjectives,butalsocomplexphrasesthatpointtoaspecificobject,suchas“carrarischerMarmor”)

all linked to corresponding translations in a wide spectrum of different languages; we also

established a minimal set of relations between the German terms (synonyms, direct hyper- and

hyponyms), andgrouped theequivalent terms together;whenever it ispossible,wealso resolved

equivalenttermsbyselectingonepreferredconcept.Inadditionweconnecttermsandconceptsby

SKOSlinkstoexternalthesauri,liketheArts&ArchitectureThesaurusoftheGettyInstitution.

Homepage:http://archwort.dainst.org/thesaurus/de/vocab/index.php

Firstrelease:Jan2014

LastUpdate:2015



authenticatedusers

Integration mode: This service will be accessible through ARIADNE. The authentication protocolcouldbeintegratedwiththeauthenticationinARIADNEPortal.

Figure8:AnexampleofaterminIDAIVocabularyservice


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5.2.2 iDAI.gazetteerTypeofservice:Gazetteer

Short Description: The German Archaeological Institute together with the Cologne Digital

ArchaeologyLaboratoryisdevelopingtheiDAI.gazetteer-awebserviceconnectingtoponymswith

coordinates. It was initially built as an authority file/controlled vocabulary for any geo-related

informationininformationsystemsoftheDAI.Furthermoreitismeanttolinkthesedatawithother

worldwidegazetteer-systems.

Homepage:http://gazetteer.dainst.org/

Firstrelease:Nov2012

LastUpdate:April2015



authenticatedusers

Integration mode: This service will be accessible from ARIADNE. It may be used as a controlled

vocabulary for spatial extent of archaeological data providedwithin ARIADNE. The authentication

protocolcouldbeintegratedwiththeauthenticationinARIADNEPortal.

Figure9:anexampleofadatasetintheiDAIgazetteer


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6 ServicesdevelopedwithintheARIADNEproject

While the goal of ARIADNE is essentially to create a common Infrastructure of data and services,

obtained mainly integrating existing resources, a part of the effort of WP13 is devoted to the

developmentofnewservices.

Preliminary work during Year 1 was devoted to analysing the types of data in archaeological

collectionsforwhichtheservicesprovidedbythecommunityareconsideredtobenotsufficiently

adequate. It turnedoutthatvisualmediawas indicatedasnotsufficientlysupported inanyofthe

considered communities. In the next Sections,wewill provide anoverviewof the different visual

media, with a discussion on the available service for their integration with collections, and a

descriptionoftheserviceswhichareunderdevelopmentinthecontextofARIADNE.Theseservices

accountforusecase7.7inDeliverable13.1.

6.1 VisualMediainArchaeologicalcollections

Asub-focusintheARIADNEprojectistoprovidesupportforthemanagementofvisualmedia.The

conceptofvisualmediainarchaeologycanbebroadlydescribedasanytypeofvisualrepresentation

of archaeological findings or assets, i.e.: conventional 2D images (including high resolution, high

dynamic range, HDR), special images (such as relightable or panoramic images), 3D models and

videos. Therefore, the term visual data encompasses anymedia that could help archaeologists to

better represent, document and communicate the artworks under investigation or study. Visual

media arenotnew instrumentsofwork for archaeologists, sincedrawings and imageshavebeen

used for centuries, and are part of common working practice. The new issue is how to make a

proficientuseofthosemediawhendifferentdigitalincarnationsaremadeavailablebytheprogress

of ICTtechnology.Anumberofnew, lowcostandeasy-to-useopportunities for theacquisitionof

digital visual representations are now available and widely used on the field. What is still

cumbersomehowever ishowtoopendata toallpotentialusers (consideringboth thoseworking

within the domain and the general public), and how to publish in an easy and efficientmanner.

Specific to the archaeological domain is the range of scales involved: archaeological data may

include representations of small findings (a few centimeters) up to representations of an entire

archaeologicalsite(hundredsofmeters).

Thenextsubsectionspresentviewsonthemaintypesofvisualdata(derivedfromdiscussionatan

ARIADNEWP13workshop held in Pisa in October 2013, and guidelines for supporting them. The

technology will be briefly described (some of which is highly innovative). It is planned to deploy

servicestomakeiteasiertopublishandsharevisualdataresourcesontheweb.


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6.1.1 The2Drealmofvisualdata

Imagesare themost commonvisualmedium,and theyhavebeenpartofarchaeologicaldatasets

right from the very beginning, originally by means of the analogue, printed version and more

recentlybydigitalmeansof(eitherdigitallynativeimagesorscannedfromoldprints/slides).Those

dataarepartofmanydigitalarchivesandcollections.Asanexample,more than800K imagesare

stored in the Arachne archive managed by the DAI - German Archaeological Institute (Section5.1.3). Images are also an important component of the archives of theArchaeologyData Service(ADS),YorkUniversity,UK(Section5.1.1).

Even for existing datasets, the number of available images (sometimes of very good quality) is

alreadyveryhigh.

While images are amedium that is fully integratedwithin theWebandHTML since its inception,

thereareaspectsthatlackastandardsolutionforarchivalandvisualizationpurposes.

6.1.1.1 2Dimages–Copingwithhighresolutionimages

Mostoftheimagesproducednowadaysareveryhigh-resolution.High-resolutionimagesarenowa

highly available resource,with the impressive evolution of digital photography (just tomention a

singleexample,arecentoff-the-shelfsmartphoneprovidesa41MPixcamera).

Whenhigh-orveryhigh-resolution imagesareavailable, visualizationon thewebcanbedifficult,

due to the amount of data that has to be transferred before a Web browser can display it, as

browsersmustreceivetheentirefilebeforevisualizingit.Anotherimportantandcriticalissuecould

be the necessity to protect the data, in the sense that the access to high quality ones may be

grantedbyrequestonly.

A possible solution may be providing a visual feedback approach adopted by map viewers. For

example,GoogleMaps (http://maps.google.com) handle its hugemaps by re-encoding them in a

sequenceofdecreasingresolution.Eachimagewithinthissequencesplits intosquaretilesoffixed

size (usually 256 pixels) to allow datamanagement at high granularity. The client in the browser

“composes” theportionof the imageselectedby theuseron the flyusing the tilesmoresuitable

accordingtothesizeoftheportionunderview.Thisisasimplemulti-resolutionapproachthathas

beendemonstratedtobeveryefficientforvisualizingthistypeofdata.Thesameapproachcanbe

employedtovisualizehigh-orveryhigh-resolutionimages.

Fromatechnicalviewpoint,tilescanbe:

1. Stored on a server and served by a web server. This has the disadvantage of requiring

management of hundreds of files (one for each tile) for each image. For example, if an

imageof4000x4000pixels is stored in threedifferent resolutions (e.g.2000x2000and

1000x1000)anddecomposedintilesof200x200pixels,525files(400+100+25)would

beneededtostoreeachimage.

2. Computedonthefly,startingfromasuitableformatsuchasTIFForJPEG2000.Thisrequires

additional CPU cost, and an increased effort in the installation and configuration of the

server.


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Itisproposedtofollowthisapproachbutmakeitmoreefficient,i.e.compressinasinglefileallthe

tiles,andservethemtothebrowserusingthehttp-partialrequests.ThisusesAJAXtechnologyandJavascript,avoidingtheinconveniencesofbothsolution1and2.

A first prototype of a similar viewing system has been implemented by ISTI-CNR on top of the

SpiderGLlayer.Inthiscasetheclassicapproachofstoringalargenumberoffilesontheserver(one

fileforeachtile)hasbeenemployed.Thisprototype,enrichedwithapreloadingsystemwhichmay

have potential to be improved, has been experimented with in the Cenobium project

(http://cenobium.isti.cnr.it/))tovisualizehigh-resolutionimagesoffigurativecapitals.

Note that the same multiresolution-tiling approach will be used also in two other application

contexts:forthevisualizationofHDRimagesandforthevisualizationofRTIimages.

Figure10:Progressivetransmissionandvisualizationofhigh-resolutionimagesontheWeb(Cenobium

system).

6.1.1.2 2Dimages-VisualizationofHighDynamicRange(HDR)images

HDRimagesareimagesacquiredbycombiningshotstakenatdifferentf-stops,inordertoacquirea

higherdynamic rangeand sohave richer images. Such imageshavebetter representationofdark

andilluminatedzonesintheviewfieldwithrespecttostandardimages.Standardimagesareusually

calledLDR(low-dynamicrange)imagesinthiscontext.Theuseofthistypeofdataisbecomingmore

andmoreusualintheselastyears,andHDRdatawillsoonbeastandardpartofanyarchaeological

documentationcampaign.Archaeology isan idealdomainfor theapplicationofHDR images,as in

manycasesimagesmustbeacquiredincontextscharacterizedbyastronglyunevendistributionof

light(i.e.anarchaeologyexcavationinsouthernEuropewhichpresentsdirectsharpsunillumination

andseveralzoneswithintheviewmaybeundershadows,orphotostakenintheinteriorofatomb

withscarceandunevenillumination).

HDR images can be hard to store and visualize, especially because Low Dynamic Range (LDR)

monitors cannot visualize the data in a proper way. For this reason, the current approach is to

transformtheHDRdataintoastandardLDRimage.Unfortunately,byconvertinganHDRimageinto

anLDRimagemuchvisualcontentmaybelost.


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WebGL,throughSpiderGL,canprovideaneasywaytovisualizeHDRimagesusingtheiroriginaldata,

withoutconvertingtheimagetoanLDRformat.TheHDRWebViewerweproposefollowstheideaof exploiting all the HDR information producing an on-the-fly LDR image, according to the user’s

needs. The user can indicate interactivelywhere he/shewants to focus the region, and the HDR

viewer will adapt the image to that region (by adjusting the virtual exposure). The user can

interactivelyvarythefocusarea(inrealtime,duringthevisualizationsession)inordertospotallthe

details of the image and avoid losingor compressing the content.A first demoof this interactive

approachisprovidedatthefollowingwebaddress:http://spidergl.org/example.php?id=13.

Fromatechnicalviewpoint,theHDRtexturesarestoredusingPNGHDR,aformatthatencodesextra

informationinthealphachannelofaPNGfile.(https://github.com/banterle/HDR_Toolbox).Inorder

to handle high-resolutionHDR images, the viewer can adopt the samemulti-resolution tile-based

approachdescribedinpreviousSubsection.

Figure11:VisualizationinSpiderGLofthesameHDRimagewithtwodifferentexpositionvalues

6.1.1.3 2DImages-Visualizationofbigimagesdatasets

Thenumberofimagesstoredinarchaeologicalarchivescanbeextremelyhigh,oftenintheorderof

thousands(ifnottensorhundredsthousand).Hence,thesearchandnavigationtofindtheseimages

can be time consuming and difficult. The standard approach is currently still a keyword search,

whichcouldbefrustratinginmanycases;forexample,whensearchingforartworkssimilartoone

under study. Browsing over a large set of image icons (the approach provided bymost operating

systemsorbycommoninterfacestobrowseimages)isanalternative,buttheefficiencymaynotbe

good. For this reason, a method supporting easier navigation and semantic ordering over largenumbersofimagescanbeveryusefulformanypurposes.

A possible solution is the use of smart visualization of big datasets, where the images can be

groupedfollowingasemantic(i.e.similarcolors,orsimilarpointofview),inordertohelptheuser.

AnexampleisthePilebarsapproach,whichallowstheimagestobeordered/sortedandvisualized


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followingseveralpossiblesemantics.AfterthatthespecificsemanticisembeddedinthePilebarsby

implementing a proper “distance” function between the images. The Pilebars visualization tool

worksinaninteractiveway,presentingtheimageaccordingtoa“smart”layoutwhichgivestheuser

easyandfastnavigationbetweentheimagesets(Figure12).

Figure12:AnexampleoftheappearanceofthePilebarsbrowsinginterface

6.1.1.4 Enhanced2DImages–Productionandvisualizationofpanoramicimages

Panoramic images are now a common resource, after the adoption by Google’s StreetView

application (https://www.google.com/maps/views/streetview?gl=us), now integrated with Google

maps.Theyareextremelyuseful forvisuallypresentinganarchaeologicalcontext/site,the interior

ofabuilding,etc.Panoramicimagesarealsoextremelyfastandeasytoproduce.

6.1.1.5 Enhanced2DImages–ProductionandvisualizationofRTIimages

Relightable images (also called Reflection Transformation Images, or RTI) are becoming an

increasinglyusedtechnologytoacquiredetaileddocumentationonsmallquasi-planarobjects.Thisisparticularlyusefulespeciallyforobjectscharacterizedbyacomplexlightreflectionattributes.The

advantageofthisrepresentation isthepossibilityofchangingthe lightdirectionoverthe image in

real time (i.e. during visualization), and the availability of using enhanced visualizationmodes to

betterinspectfinedetailsoftheobjects’surface(Figure15).

RTIimageshavebeensuccessfullyappliedinanumberofapplications,suchascollectionsofcoins,

cuneiformtablets, inscriptions,carvings,bas-reliefs,paintingsand jewellery.Moreover,RTI images

allowthecreationofdigitalrepresentationsofartworksmadeofmaterialsthatcannotbeacquired

byusual3Dscanningtechnologies(highlyreflectivematerials,semi-transparentobjects,etc.).

Typically, this typeof image isgeneratedstarting fromasetofphotographsacquiredwitha fixed

camera under varying lighting conditions. RTI encodes the acquireddata in a compactway, using

view-dependentper-pixelreflectancefunctions,whichallowsthegenerationoftherelightedimage

usingany lightdirection in thehemispherearound the cameraposition.Thisper-pixel reflectance

function variesbetweendifferentRTI types. ForPTM (Polynomial TextureMaps) the function is a

biquadratic polynomial (six coefficients are required to define it). For more advanced RTI, hemi-

sphericalharmonicsareusuallyemployed(ninecoefficientsareusedinthiscase).

In this last type of RTI, the image is subdivided in nine layers, one layer for eachHSH coefficient

(Figure13),whereeachlayercontainsoneofthecoefficientsofthethreeRGBcolourchannels.Then

for each layer a multi-resolution quad-tree is created in the analogous way described in Section


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7.1.1,andatileforeachnodeofthetreeissavedinJPGformat.Tovisualizeaspecificpixel,nineJPG

imagesthatcontainitsHSHcoefficientsneedtobeloaded.

HemisphericalHarmonicslayerdecomposition

Figure13:ImagesrepresentingthedifferentcoefficientsoftheHSHper-pixelfunction

Concerning theacquisitionof this typeof image,CNR-ISTIbuilt anautomaticacquisitiondevice (a

dome) that permits the acquisition of up to dozens object in a single day, and produces the RTI

imagesinanautomatedway(Figure14).

The dome is composed of four aluminium shells that are easily assembled and disassembled (to

simplify transport). It has 116 cold white LEDs (6 Watt, 750 lumen) used to change the lighting

conditions and an overhead high-resolution reflex camera (Nikon D5200, 24Mpixel). The dome is

computercontrolledtoallowcompletelyautomaticacquisitionbysynchronizingtheswitchingonof

eachLEDwiththeshutterofthecamera.


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Figure14:TheRTIacquisitiondevicedevelopedbyCNR-ISTI

Moreover,theinteractivevisualizationofRTIimagescanbesupportedlocally,usingfreelyavailable

tools, and on the web, using aWebGL component. As stated previously, because RTI images ae

usually hight resolution, this visualization component has to adopt the same tile-based approach

describedinprevioussubsections.

Figure15:ExamplesoftwodifferentvisualizationmodesappliedtothesameRTIimage

6.1.2 Full3Drepresentations

3D representations are now becoming quite common in archaeology. Two classes of models are

produced:

• Sampledmodels,usuallyproducedusingactive3Dscanning(laser-basedsystemsorsystems

usingstructured light),oradoptingtherecentphotogrammetryapproaches (productionof

3Dmodelsfromastreamofimages);

• Modelled representations produced using the user-drivenmodelling systems designed for

3Dmodellingandcomputeranimationapplications.


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Inthecontextofprofessionalarchaeologicalapplications,sampledmodelsaremorecommon,since

theygivemuchmorecontrolovertheaccuracyoftherepresentationwithregardtohand-modelled

representations(thishasbeenverifiedatapreviousworkshopheldinPisa,November2013,where

most of the 3D models presented by content providers were part of this first group, including

excellentmodelsdemonstratedbytheDiscoveryProgramme, http://www.discoveryprogramme.ie).

The latter, conversely, are more common in applications oriented to the public (e.g. to produce

videosorvirtualreconstructionsofstillimages).

Figure16:TheMeshLabopensourcesystem,renderinga3DmodelofaninsulainPompeii.

6.1.2.1 Sampled3Dmodels–Supportingtheproductionphase

TheopensourcegeometryprocessingsystemMeshLab(seeFigure16)developedbyCNR-ISTIisone

of the most diffuse tools for processing sampled data resulting from 3D scanning or stereo-

photogrammetry (http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/). With more than one million downloads

(includingaround350.000in2013),MeshLabnowhasaconsolidatedandverylargecommunityof

users.

MeshLab has been widely used and improved within the context of previous and on-going EU

projects,suchas3D-COFORM,3D-ICONSandV-Must.Thelastreleaseincludesanumberofdifferent

functionalitiesthatcouldbeusedfortheprocessingandpresentationof3Dmodels.

ThefeaturesthatcouldbeusedwithintheARIADNEinfrastructureare:

o Thecompletepipelineforprocessing3Dscanneddata

o Thepipelinesupportingcolourprojectionon3Dmodels

o Topologicalfeaturesremovalandfixing

o Snapshotsproductionusingseveraldifferentrenderingmodes

o AcommandlineversionofMeshLab(MeshLabServer)toapplyasetoffiltersonalargenumberof3DModels(inbatches,usingunattendedmode).


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6.1.2.2 3Dmodels–Presentationontheweb

Presentationonthewebofcomplexmodels(modelscomposedbymillionsofsamples,liketheones

usuallyobtainedby3Dscanning),isstillverydifficulttoachieve.Thisisprimarilybecauseitishard

totransmit/rendersuchdatainrealtime,andpublishing3Dmaterialonthewebisstillataskthat

few developers can address. On the other hand, 3D models cannot be confined to the single

archaeologist’s archive, but should be shared with the community, to increase knowledge and

stimulatefurtherstudy.

CNR-ISTI has recently developed two resources to support easier publishing on the web of high-

fidelity3Dmodels(thisdevelopmenthasbeenfundedmostlybytheV-Mustprojecthttp://www.v-

must.net/).

3DHOP (3D Heritage On-Line Presenter, Figure 17) is a set of templates and components for the

developmentofVirtualMuseumsoreffectivepresentationsontheWebofdigital3Dassets.Itsmain

features include: easypresentationof different typesofmultimedia content, including relightable

images and single, high-resolution 3D models, sophisticated customization capabilities for Web

presentation,seamless integrationwithinaWebpageallowing integrationofdifferentmultimedia

data (Figure 17). 3DHOP is designed to be easy-to-learn and easy-to-use. Its modular structure

allowsuserswithdifferentlevelsofexpertisetouseiteffectively,evenwhentheuserhasverylittle

ornoknowledgeofComputerGraphicsandWebProgramming.Theframeworkalsoprovidesterrain

visualization, different navigation/interaction modes, and picking and camera controls. Many of

these components are designed to account for the needs that are often encountered in the

development of Cultural Heritage applications (for example, it is particularly easy to build a web

pageshowingacollectionofobjects).

Thevisualizationofhigh-resolution3DmodelsisbasedonaWebGLandJavascriptimplementation

oftheNexusmulti-resolutionframework:themodeltobevisualizedispre-processedandconverted

intoacollectionofsmall fragmentsofafewthousandsoftriangles,atdifferentresolutions.These

fragments can be assembled together to approximate the original surface. Depending on the

viewpoint the fragments are selected to minimize the rendering error given a set amount of

triangles.So,onlythefragmenteffectivelyviewedbytheusersarerequiredtobesentthroughthe

Web.

Thisapproachisoptimalforanumberofreasons:

• It minimizes CPU usage, as the assembling algorithm is quite simple. This is especially

importantastheclientsidewillberunningJavascript.

• Using a collection of fragments supports a naturally out-of-core approach, which allows

renderingtobeginassoonasdatais incoming,andchunkdataprocessingtominimizethe

effectsofnetworklatency.

• Itispossibletooptimizetherenderingqualityforagivenamountofbandwidth.

• Automaticpre-fetchingisimplementedtohidelatencyasmuchaspossible.


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• There isnoneedforspecialserversupport:as itonlyrequiresbasicHTTPprotocol,sothe

browseritselfhandlesboththestreamingandrenderingtasks.

AnothergoalofV-MUSTwas thecreationofa setofWebservices forunattendedhandlingof3D

data.Theserviceswillbemainlyautomatic,andaimedatperformingtheprocessingandpreparation

of 3D models for visualization on the Web. An example of this service is the ModelConvert(http://pipeline.v-must.net/)service,whichautomaticallypreparesthe3Dmodelandembedsitinto

awebpagedependingontheapplicationtemplatechosen.Themodelispreparedbyconvertingitin

a format suitable for streaming on theWeb (X3DOM proprietary format, which is the previously

mentionedNexusmodel formatusedby3DHOP). TheModelConvert canalsoperforma standard

cleaning and fixing procedure, in order to remove and fix topological artefactswithin themodels

beforeconvertingit.TheoutputofModelConvertisapackagecontainingthewebpagesgenerated,

plusaURLtotestthem.ModelConvertemploysmanytechnologies,suchasX3DOM,SpiderGLanda

minimalversionof3DHOP,dependingontheselectedapplicationtemplate(Figure18).

Figure17:Twoexamplesofdifferentvisualizationlayoutsfor3Dmodelssupportedby3DHOP

Figure18:theModelConvertserviceofV-Must


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6.1.3 Videos

Videos(eithercapturedwithdigitalvideoorstandardcameras,ordocumentationproducedbyusing

computeranimation)areawell-knownresourceforvisualpresentationinarchaeology.

Similartopanoramicimages,manyfreeandembeddedsolutionsareavailable;henceitisquiteeasy

tointegratevideosinthecontextofacollection.Itisunlikelythatnewserviceswillbeneededinthis

case.

6.2 ServiceunderimplementationinARIADNE

Followingtheoutcomesof theoverviewonvisualmedia,asetofserviceswerecreatedtohandle

them in an automatedway. The goalwas to provide a servicewhereusers donot need a strong

knowledgeof the issues related to visualmedia. The interactionwith the servicemustbe simple,

andprovideeasytouseresults.

The next subsections briefly describe the services that have been released by ARIADNE partners.

These services are currently under further implementation, and will be fully integrated in the

contextoftheARIADNEinfrastructure.

6.2.1 ARIADNEVisualMediaService

Typeofservice:publicationandpresentationofcomplexmediaassets

Short Description: The ARIADNE Media Service is aimed at providing support for the easy

publicationandpresentationofcomplexmediaassetsontheWeb.Theideaistobuildanautomatic

serviceabletotransformanymediafileuploadedbyARIADNEarchivemanagersintoaformatthat

willalloweasyandefficientaccessandremotevisualizationontheWeb.Theserviceisbasedona

simple web interface and supports three types of visual media: high-resolution images, RTI

(Reflection Transformation Images, i.e. dynamically re-lightable images), and high-resolution 3D

models.


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Figure19:TheVisualMediaServicehomepage

Thesetypesofmediaarenoteasytodisplayontheweb,asentirefilesmayneedtobedownloaded

forthemtobevisualized,anddedicatedsoftwaremayneedtobeselected/installed.Moreover,the

ownerofhighqualitydatamayprefernot togivevisitors theoption todownload them freely, in

ordertoprotecttheownershipofthedata.

Afteraccessing theservice, theuserwill findasimpleWeb formthatallows themtouploadtheir

data (3Dmodel,hi-res imageorRTI)andtoprovidesomebasic informationaboutthemedia.The

serviceprocessestheinputdatainanautomatedwayandcreatesanonlinepage.Attheendofthe

processingstep,theuserreceivesanemailcontainingalinktothevisualizationpage(hostedonthe

ARIADNEweb-serviceandopentoanyexternaluser)andtoanadminpage,wheretheassociated

datacanbemodified.Itisalsopossibletodownloadthepagecreated(HTMLcode+processed3D

Modelorimage)inordertointegratethecontentontheuser’slocalserverorarchive.

Inthecaseof3Dmodels,thegeometryisprocessed,convertingapossiblecomplex3Dmodelintoa

multi-resolutionformat(Nexus,http://vcg.isti.cnr.it/nexus).Thismulti-resolutionstructureiscanbe

streamed, and is used to create a visualizationwebpage using aWeb presentation tool (3DHOP,

http://www.3dhop.net)basedonWebGLanddevelopedbyCNR-ISTI.

Analogously,highresolutionimagesarealsotransformedintoamulti-resolutionformat,supporting

progressivestreaming;theservicetransformseachimageintoaweb-compliantformat:similarlyto

Googlemaps, the high-resolution imagewill be regularly divided into chunks, and a hierarchy of

imagesatdifferentresolutionsisproducedfromthesechunks;arenderingwebpageisthencreated

whereitwillbepossibletonavigatethemodelinaWebGLframe.


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Figure20:anexampleofavisualizationpageautomaticallygeneratedbytheVisualMediaService

RTI aremanaged similarly to hi-res images, even if the encoding for theWeb streaming ismore

complex,andWebGLrenderingalsotakescareoftheinputandcalculationofthevariable-lighting.

Withthissetup,evennewuserscaneasilycreateanefficientwebpagetodisplaycomplex2Dor3D

content. For more experienced users, these basic webpages may be the starting point for the

developmentofmorecomplexvisualizations,or for the integrationofvisualizations insideexisting

websites, taking advantage of the features of the 3DHOP platform (www.3dhop.net). Finally, the

datastructuresforremotevisualization(multi-resolutionfor3Dmodels,imagepyramidsforimages

andRTIwebencoding)protects theoriginaldata,asadirectdownloadof themultimedia file ina

singleplainformatisnotpossible.

Homepage:http://visual.ariadne-infrastructure.eu/


LastUpdate:April2015

Providedby:ISTI-CNR,Italy

Authentication: Not needed for now, the service will be integrated within the authenticationprotocolsoftheARIADNEportal

Integrationandothernotes:ThisservicewillbeaccessibledirectlyfromtheARIADNEportal.


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6.2.2 LandscapeFactory

Typeofservice:generationand3Dvisualizationofterraindatasets

ShortDescription:LandscapeServicesforARIADNEareasetofresponsivewebservicesthatincludelarge terrain dataset generation, 3D landscape composing and 3D model processing, leveraging

powerful open-source frameworks and toolkits such as GDAL, OSGjs, OpenSceneGraph and

ownCloud.

Themaincomponents include:thecloudservice,theterraingenerationservice,theterraingallery

andthefront-endwebcomponentforinteractivevisualization.

Figure21:TheLandscapeServicesmainpage

Thecloudserviceaimstoprovideaway toaccess,manageandeventually share input (oroutput)

data. This includes DEMs/DTMs, Geo-images, 3D models, etc. This is specifically designed for

compactworkflowsorwhendealingwithmassiveamountsofdatawithspecialaccesspolicies.The

service aims to not only provide a space to store data, but also to develop a collaborative

environment online, where multiple users may work and modify data at the same time. For

example, several users may work on the same landscape, enriching visualization, integrating

documentsandmore.

The3DTerrainserviceworksinasimilarwaytotheVisualMediaService,butitprovidesprocessing

and visualization for terrain datasets,which is a different type of 3Dmodel. The service takes as

input multiple DEM/DTM files, geo-images, shapefiles and ESRI world files(http://webhelp.esri.com/arcims/9.2/general/topics/author_world_files.htm) to georeference the

final dataset. Advanced features are offered, including the ability to select specific areas of a

generateddatasetfromashapefile,setaverticalmultiplier,switchtogeocentricoutputmode,set

resolutiondepthandmuchmore.Theoutputsectionprovidesseveraloptions,including:


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• Common 3D formats for desktop segment (obj, 3ds, fbx, etc.), applied to landscape

reconstructionworkflow.Outputincludesoptimizedgeometryandtextures

• WebGL multi-resolution 3D visualization for modern browsers. Published output includes

multi-resolutioncompressedgeometriesandtexturesforefficientstreaming.

• Preview visualization by remote rendering of terrain dataset for devices not supporting

WebGL.Asetofinteractiveframes(images)isgeneratedasoutput.

TheWebGLFront-Endprovidesefficientvisualizationofgenerated3Dterraindatasetsandoptions

toembed the interactive frame intoexternalpages,or searchquerieswithin theARIADNEportal.

Thedevelopedcomponentalsoincludessupportformobilebrowsers(responsiveHTML5interface),

spherical panoramas, presentation of external XML metadata, points-of-view and several input

peripherals, including mouse, keyboard, joypad and multi-touch devices (desktop, tablets and

smartphones,Figure22).

Figure22:TheinteractiveWebGLFront-Endtovisualizeamulti-resolution3DterrainDBonmoderndesktopbrowsers(left)andsmartphones(right).

TheTerrainGalleryallowsdisplay,editingandeventuallydeletinggeneratedterrain3Ddatasetsforacurrentloggeduser/researchinstitution.Eachlisteditemalsoofferslinksfordownloadingfullzip

packageswhichcontainthechosen3Dformatandtexturesforthedatasetsproduced, linkstothe

preview service and links to the WebGL published page; with embed options for external

integration.


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Figure23:TheTerrainGallerylistingproducedterraindatasetsforuser“VHLab”

Homepage:http://seth.itabc.cnr.it/services/landscape/


LastUpdate:July2015

Providedby:ITABC-CNR,Italy

Authentication:Neededfordatasetgeneration,thefront-endserviceandpublisheddatasetswillbeintegratedandresultqueriesperformedwithintheARIADNEportal

Integrationandothernotes:ThisservicewillbeaccessibledirectlyfromtheARIADNEportal.

7 ConclusionsandFutureimprovements

This Deliverable presented the current state of integration and implementation of services in the

contextoftheARIADNEinfrastructure.

The next step of the WP will be to consolidate the integration and implementation by strongly

collaboratingwithWP12,andtakingadvantageofthetestingphasewhichiscurrentlyongoing.

Toaccomplishthis,atechnicalmeetingwasconducted inJuly,2015todefinearoadmaptoreach

thefinalintegrationofservicesbyM36oftheARIADNEproject.


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Giventhecurrentstateofservices,severalconclusionscanbedrawn,andthefutureactionsforthe

WPcanbeoutlined.TheyarepresentedinthenextSections.

7.1 AfterthoughtsontheACDM

The services which are currently under implementation and integration within ARIADNE cover

severalelementsof theACDM.Thegeneral structureof theACDM is currentlyunder refinement,

especially for the classes and properties used for the description of services, since the role and

interactionof servicesdependsalsoon the integrationworkprovidedbyWP12.Nevertheless, the

analysis of services conducted in the context of thework described here, allows us tomake the

followingremarks:

• Theservicesandthedatatypes: Inthecurrentversionofthemodel,servicesapplyonlyto

data resources, but there are existing services that apply to LanguageResources, and the

projectisdevelopingservicesthatapplytotheCatalogueitself.It isthereforenecessaryto

extend the ACDM in order to accommodate the description of these services into the

Catalogue.

• Theitemlevel:ARIADNEaimstoprovide(atleastprototypal)servicesalsoatanitemlevel,

working on the single items of a collection. These are services already implemented and

usedbythepartners(Section6.2). InthecurrentACDMmodel,the itemlevel isnottaken

into account.More generally, itwill benecessary to better definehow the item levelwillintegrateintheARIADNEinfrastructure.

7.2 Longtermpreservationservices

Task13.3ofWP13isdevotedtotheimplementationoflongtermpreservationservices.Thesewill

beensured forall themetadataanddata thatwillbeproducedwithin the infrastructure (created

fromprimaryresources)andwillbekeptassecondaryresourcesstoredwithintheinfrastructure.

Currently, the concept of long term preservation needs better definition, because some of the

servicesthatwillbeintegratedintotheinfrastructure(forexample,theonesinSection5.2)already

havetheirownlongtermpreservationfunctionalities.

In the context of the ARIADNE infrastructure, long term preservation will have to be taken into

accountatleastfor:

• TheARIADNEcatalogue:mechanismtopreservemetadataareneeded

• Theitemlevel:currently,theservicespresentedinSection6.2areproducingnewdata,and

providingaccesstothem.Longtermpreservationserviceswillbeneeded,andtheywillbe

implementedassoonastheserviceswillbefullyintegratedintheARIADNEinfrastructure.


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7.3 Acceptancetesting

Task 13.4 of WP13 is meant to test the services produced in Task 13.2 and verify their

correspondencetodesign(Task13.1),userequirements (Task12.1)andusers’specifications (Task

2.1andTask2.2).

Theacceptancetestingphaseiscurrentlyongoing;theserviceswillbetestedbyuserswithdifferent

backgrounds and technical knowledge, in order to provide feedback about improvements in the

integrationwiththeinfrastructureandinthefurtherimplementationofnewservices.

Acceptance testing is a crucial step to having solid feedback, and also ensures that services will

survivebeyondtheprojectlifespan.

7.4 Futureimplementationandimprovements

ThisDeliverableprovidedanoverviewoftheinitialimplementationofservices.Theimplementation

isongoing,includingseveralcurrentactions.

Followingthestructureofthedeliverable,themainactionswillbe:

• ARIADNE Catalogue DataModel: the implementation of the ARIADNE portal will make it

possibletobetterdefine,implement,andtesttheservicesfortheCatalogue.Thisworkwill

bedoneincollaborationwithWP12.

• Add new services: the finalization of the structure of ACDM will allow new and existing

servicestobe includedasARIADNEcontinues.Thiswill likelycompriseopeningupgeneral

accesstosomeoftheservicesdevelopedforusewiththecoreservicesinWP12,including

the service to allow mapping of multi-lingual vocabularies, using the Getty Art and

Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) as a central spine (University of South Wales), the MORe

aggregationandenrichmentservice (ATHENARC),which includesmetadatavalidationand

enrichmentusingavarietyofmicro-services,andtheRDFstoreforthedeliveryofresource

discovery metadata for use in machine readable applications and queries using SPARQL

(ATHENARC).Theremayalsobeadditionalservicesincluded,eitherresultingfromworkby

ARIADNEpartnersorelsewhere,thatmaybeofusewithARIADNEmetadataandbeyond.All

services thatwill be part of the final ARIADNE infrastructurewill be described in detail in

Deliverable13.4(Finalservicesimplementationreport).

• Services for data and language resources: since most of the proposed services primarily

need integrationwithin the Infrastructure, furtherdiscussionand testingareongoing.The

mainissuesare:thedegreeofintegration(fromsimplere-directiontofull integration),the

authenticationprotocol,theintegrationamongservices

• Servicesforvisualmedia:theservicesforvisualmediaarealreadyavailableandusedbythe

community. They will be tested and improved according to the outcomes of the testing

phase.Technicalimprovementsarealsoundergoing,includingtheuseofcompressedmulti-

resolution3Dstructures.


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• Manageaccounts in theARIADNE Infrastructure: asoutlined inusecase7.8 inDeliverable13.1,it isimportanttosetuparobustmechanismtomanageaccountswithintheARIADNE

portal.ThisismainlyataskforWP12,butaproperintegrationwithservicewillbeneeded,

inordertoavoidproblemsduringthetestingphase.

8 References

ARIADNEDescriptionofWork”-DoW

ARIADNEdeliverableD2.1“FirstreportonUsers’Needs”http://ariadne-

infrastructure.eu/Resources/D2.1-First-report-on-users-needs

ARIADNEdeliverableD12.1“UseRequirements”http://ariadne-infrastructure.eu/Resources/D12.1-

Use-Requirements

ARIADNEDeliverableD13.1“ServiceDesign”http://ariadne-infrastructure.eu/Resources/D13.1-

Service-Design

SpecificationoftheARIADNECatalogueDataModelv.2.5.5http://ariadne-support.dcu.gr/

ARIADNEwebsite:www.ariadne-infrastructure.eu

initial services implementation report

Data & Analytics