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Transcript of 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
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
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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
Providedby:DAI,Germany
Authentication:Notneededfordownloadingandbrowsingthedata;dataentryandimportonlyfor
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
Providedby:DAI,Germany
Authentication:Notneededfordownloadingandbrowsingthedata;dataentryandimportonlyfor
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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
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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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
14
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
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
15
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
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
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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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
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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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
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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).
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
19
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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
20
• 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
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
21
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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
22
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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
23
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/
Firstrelease:Jan2015
LastUpdate:April2015
Providedby:ISTI-CNR,Italy
Authentication: Not needed for now, the service will be integrated within the authenticationprotocolsoftheARIADNEportal
Integrationandothernotes:ThisservicewillbeaccessibledirectlyfromtheARIADNEportal.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
24
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:
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
25
• 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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
26
Figure23:TheTerrainGallerylistingproducedterraindatasetsforuser“VHLab”
Homepage:http://seth.itabc.cnr.it/services/landscape/
Firstrelease:Jan2015
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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
27
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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
28
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.
ARIADNED.13.2(Final)
29
• 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