For the past two decades there has been extensive work using computer graphics in cultural heritage. The field of computer graphics offers powerful techniques for communication and documentation. Public communication is still the major use of computer graphics, with still images, movies and interactive displays being used to render views of the past to modern audiences. In the area of documentation, computer graphics researchers have contributed to the development of 3D scanning techniques and novel imaging approaches such as reflectance transformation imaging. In the course of pursing these applications however, researchers have found that computer graphics techniques can be used for analysis as well. Several types of analysis will be presented including understanding material properties and shape to inform physical conservation, understanding how artifacts were manufactured, and understanding how artifacts were meant to be viewed and used. Examples will be drawn from the speakers projects at IBM and at Yale, as well as from other computer graphics projects from around the world. Open challenges such as organizing massive visual collections associated with an archaeological site will be described.
Bio - Holly Rushmeier is a professor of Computer Science at Yale University. She received the BS, MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 1977, 1986 and 1988 respectively. Between receiving the BS and returning to graduate school in 1983 she worked as an engineer at the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company and at Washington Natural Gas Company. After receiving the PhD she served on the Mechanical Engineering faculty at Georgia Tech, the computing and mathematics staff of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and was a research staff member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center before taking her current position at Yale. She has worked on a variety of data visualization problems in applications ranging from engineering to finance. She also worked in the area of acquisition of data required for generating realistic computer graphics models, including a project to create a digital model of Michelangelos Florence Pieta, and the development of a scanning system to capture shape and appearance data for presenting Egyptian cultural artifacts on the World Wide Web. At Yale Prof. Rushmeiers research includes model the appearance of materials for graphics rendering and industrial design, sketching techniques for conceptual design, and shape and spectral data capture for applications in evolutionary biology and cultural heritage. Dr. Rushmeier has served as Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Graphics, as co-Editor in chief Computer Graphics Forum, and as well as the chair of numerous conferences and workshop committees. She is an ACM Distinguished Engineer, a fellow of the Eurographics Association, and received the 2013 ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award.
