Extracting Geometry from Digital Modelsin a Cultural Heritage Digital Library
Thomas L. Milbank
Perseus Project, Tufts [email protected]
Introduction
Digital libraries can …» disseminate objects “as is” through cataloged metadata
» disseminate objects customized to the user through automated processes
Models and libraries
The treatment of models asimmutable objects ...
» leads to in toto retrieval
» impacts library search results
Paradigm: a search for column capitals
Models as texts
Digital model of Boston 07.1002, a relief from tomb G 2110 at Giza, ...
rendered in an image
rendered in XML
The Perseus document manager & X3D
X3D encoding of tomb G 2110
The Boston 07.1002 “Transform”
is mapped and indexed as “object”
Index of elements/mappings
The Perseus document manager & X3D
• PDM references the index
• PDM opens the model and reads the sub-object(s)
• PDM processes the X3D fragment and outputs VRML for display in an HTML page
Results of search for “Boston 07.1002” ...
… include sub-object instantiations
Implications for model design
Need for well-defined and well-named geometry» Object-oriented modeling is suitable natively
» Layer-oriented modeling is suitable with forethought
Conclusions
• XML processing techniques …» can be applied to digital models successfully
» facilitate the identification of geometry incorporated into larger constructs
» enable the extraction of sub-object geometry
• The application of XML processing techniques establishes a framework for the integration of models with additional library services
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Thomas L. MilbankPerseus Project, Tufts University