Editorial: Computers & Graphics journal special section on cultural heritage

Abstract

An increasing number of Cultural Heritage professionals are using Computer Graphics technology to unlock and document the secrets of humanity's legacy. Earlier this year, a recent special issue of this journal published some of the important results from the intersection of these two fields [1]. The level of interest and the quality of submissions was such that an additional special section is necessary to showcase three further exciting results. Andujar et al. [2] discuss the design of the user interface for the virtual inspection of the entrance of the Ripoll Monastery in Spain. The authors analyze the requirements from museum curators and discuss the main interface design decisions. Results of a user study comparing the proposed user interface with alternative approaches are provided together with a discussion of its benefits to the Cultural Heritage Community. Adán et al. [3] propose a semi-automatic approach for the reconstruction of archeological pieces through the integration of a set of only a few segments of the original piece. This highly complex problem is tackled by considering hybrid human/computer strategies. Hypotheses, models and integration solutions originating from both humans and computers are continuously updated until an agreement is reached. This restoration approach has been tested on a set of ancient fractured pieces belonging to the remains of Roman sculptures at the well known Mérida site. Finally, Ritz et al. [4] present a novel 3D geometry acquisition technique at high resolution based on structured light reconstruction with a low-cost projector-camera system. The proposed setup allows reconstruction of the finest details of small cultural heritage objects and enables accurate height field measurements which can be used as input to physically based renderers. The cooperation between the diverse fields of cultural heritage and computer graphics is maturing. Researchers and practitioners in both fields now regularly work closely together. Many more high quality publications are expected as the synergies between the two disciplines are realized in future collaborations.