ISSN 2409-9503

Edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel and Orla Murphy

About COST and COSCH

Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage (COSCH) is an interdisciplinary network of experts in and users of the latest optical measuring techniques and imaging used in documentation of artefacts. COSCH aims to enhance the existing practice and standards in 3D documentation, by promoting a better understanding of science, and widening the use of specialist technologies. COSCH networking activities are funded by COST, an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology, allowing the coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level. COSCH is a COST Transdomain Action in the area of Materials, Physics and Nanosciences. Funding has been made available from 2012 to 2016.

Contributors 

Antonio Alvarez, Miguel Ares, Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Frank Boochs, Jan Bryscejn, Eryk Bunsch, Tomáš Fíla, Angel Garcia-Botella, Anja Cramer, Mona Hess, Maciej Karaszewski, Alamin Mansouri, Javier Muñoz, Orla Murphy, Santiago Royo, Robert Sitnik, Daniel Vavřík; Daniel Vazquez, David Vrba, Stefanie Wefers >>>

Editorial

The interdisciplinary ‘Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage' brings together some 217 researchers from 27 countries. We represent a wide range of backgrounds, specialisms and discrete research interests. We also have much in common. We appreciate the beauty of art and significance of cultural heritage. We believe in the best possible documentation of artefacts as an essential means to their conservation and preservation, study and education. The accurate measurement of colour and shape is a critical, yet by no means trivial part of 3D documentation. In COSCH, specialists in optical and imaging technologies collaborate with a community of users representing a wide range of application areas. We are determined to reach a common understanding of current needs and possibilities. We work towards a conceptual, scientific, technical and procedural consensus in defining best standards in heritage documentation. >>>

COSCH Profile: Frank Boochs

A three minute interview with Frank Boochs, Professor of Geoinformatics at i3mainz, and Chairman of COSCH >>>

COSCH Scientific Papers

Proceedings of the Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage session at the Denkmäler 3D Conference titled "From low-cost to high-tech. 3D-Documentation in Archaeology & Monument Preservation", held at the LWL Industrial Museum Zeche Zollern in Dortmund on 18 October 2013.

• Preface by Frank Boochs

‘Denkmäler 3D' stands for an interdisciplinary conference co-organised by engineers and archaeologists dedicated to sharing experience of projects which apply new technologies for the benefit of interdisciplinary research in the area of cultural heritage; in particular to support applications which rely on precise spatial measurements and appearance data. It was organised for the first time in 2003 and looked at the emerging question of the importance of a dialogue between disciplines in order to maximise the advantage of application of modern documentation techniques. >>>

• Low-cost 3D Scanning Technology Based on Active Stereovision by Miguel Ares and Santiago Royo

• The Process of Automated Digitisation of Shape and Colour of Outdoor Historic Objects by Maciej Karaszewski, Robert Sitnik and Eryk Bunsch 

• Study on Close-range Digitisation Techniques Integrated with Reflectance Estimation by Jakub Krzesłowski

• Spectral and Colorimetric Measurements in Cultural Heritage by Daniel Vázquez Molini, Antonio Alvarez, Javier Muñoz, Angel Garcia-Botella

• Digitising 3D Surfaces of Museum Objects Using Photometric Stereo-Device by Jaroslav Valach, David Vrba, Tomás Fíla, Jan Bryscejn and Daniel Vavrík

• Dissemination Design of a 3D-documented Archaeological Feature in Ephesos by Stefanie Wefers and Anja Cramer

COSCH News

Task Force Meetings

In 2013 a Task Force for each COSCH working group was formed. A series of working meetings has since been organised to enable in-depth discussion of key scientific questions concerning spatial and spectral documentation of material cultural heritage. Alain Trémeau and Orla Murphy report on the first meeting of the Task Force for the Working Group 3 whose work is centred around three questions: registration processes, integration of multi-sensor data, and data access and formats. The meeting was held at the Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain, on 30th and 31st January 2014 and focused on this Group's contribution to the COSCH Knowledge Representation under development >>>

STSMs          

Right from the start, the COSCH Action has bet on Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs) as a privileged instrument contributing to both achieving the Action objectives as well as training young researchers. Two calls for STSMs without predefined topics were launched during 2013 and diffused within COSCH network, and also within several networks related to the fields of imaging and cultural heritage. The Coordinator of COSCH STSMs, Alamin Mansouri reports >>>

ESR Think Tank

Think Tanks for Early Stage COSCH Researchers were introduced at the second meeting of the Action, held at King's College London in September 2013. Alamin Mansouri and Orla Murphy report >>>

News from the Field

A new RTI dome at the Louvre; AGORA 3D Project; new papers etc >>>

Acknowledgements

The Authors of scientific papers and reports gratefully acknowledge the support of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, the COST Action TD1201 "Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage" (www.cosch.info).

The Editors would like to thank the reviewers of the scientific papers and all who have helped with the preparation and publication of this issue, in particular Dr Nicola D'Apuzzo of Hometrica Consulting in Switzerland; Dr Jean-Angelo Beraldin of the National Research Council of Canada; Dr Ville Heikkinen of the School of Computing of the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu; Dr Julio del Hoyo Melendez of the National Museum in Kraków, Poland; Lindsay MacDonald of the Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, UK; Marcello Picollo of the Istituto di Fisica Applicata "Nello Carrara" at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy; Charlotte Roueché, Professor of Digital Hellenic Studies at King's College London, UK; Professor Robert Sablatnig of the Institute of Computer Aided Automation and Computer Vision Lab of the Vienna University of Technology, Austria; Dr Donald H. Sanders of Learning Sites, Inc., Williamstown, MA, USA; Professor Robert Sitnik of the Institute of Micromechanics and Photonics, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland; Dr Stefanie Wefers of i3mainz, University of Applied Sciences, Geoinformation and Surveying, Mainz, Germany. The reviewers' feedback was communicated to the Authors. The Authors have responded to the reviewers' comments and suggestions by revising and enhancing the manuscripts.

Disclaimer

The articles in this issue express the views of the authors and not necessarily those of the COSCH Editorial Board and reviewers.

© Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage. Articles © individual author(s) and reproduction is with their permission. Illustrations © individual authors/photographers. The image of Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver © Augsburger Puppenkiste, Thienemann-Esslinger Verlag GmbH and Oehmichens Marionettentheater reproduced with kind permission.
 

Next issue deadlines:

1 October 2014 for scientific papers; 1 November 2014 for news items