Tools and expertise for 3D Collection Formation

John Clinton
University of Brighton
Watts Building
Lewes road
Brighton
BN2 4GJ

CENTER FOR DOCUMENTATION OF CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE CULTNAT, EGYPT
CMC ASSOCIATES LTD., UNITED KINGDOM
FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY HELLAS, GREECE
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE, ITALY
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, UNITED KINGDOM
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (CNRS), FRANCE
PIN SOC.CONS. A R.L. - SERVIZI DIDATTICI E SCIENTIFICI PER L' UNIVERSITA DI FIRENZE, ITALY
UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW,  UNITED KINGDOM
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET GRAZ, AUSTRIA
FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V, GERMANY
KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN, BELGIUM
EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH,  SWITZERLAND
UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA, UNITED KINGDOM
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET GRAZ, AUSTRIA
FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V, GERMANY
KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN, BELGIUM
EIDGENOESSISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE ZUERICH, SWITZERLAND

E-Mail: J.M.Clinton@bton.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1273 642609

The 3D-COFORM project will advance the state-of-the-art in 3D-digitisation and make 3D-documentation an everyday practical choice for digital documentation campaigns in the cultural heritage sector. The project addresses all aspects of 3D-capture, 3D-processing, the semantics of shape, material properties, metadata and provenance, integration with other sources (textual and other media); search, research and dissemination to the public and professional alike.

A strong technical research program is complemented by research into practical business aspects: business models for exploitation of 3D assets, workflow planning and execution for mass digitisation, socio-economic impact assessment; and above all the creation of a Virtual Centre of Competence in 3D digitization.

3D-COFORM will be based on an extensible core ontology (CIDOC-CRM) which will allow the integration of more detailed, specialized models and terminological systems under the core model.Information integration will be achieved through an annotation and co-referencing mechanism that will allow links between the 3D models and their metadata in cultural heritage, with all related resources and knowledge in order to enable efficient access, use, reuse and preservation. The project will develop an integrated management of the related metadata regarding

• model structure and parameters, relations of models to modelled objects and their coordinates;
• digital provenance, i.e. employed sources, processes, tools and parameters;
• description and semantic classification of the modelled objects, their parts and employed analogies, their location, history and cultural-historical associations.
• links to other sources and expert annotations about modelling assumptions and related cultural-historical data.