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3D visualization tools to explore ancient architectures in South America

Article in Virtual Archaeology Review · November 2016

DOI: 10.4995/var.2016.5904

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 Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15): 44-53, 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/var.2016.5904
© UPV, SEAV, 2015

Received: June 8, 2016

Accepted: July 27, 2016

3D VISUALIZATION TOOLS TO EXPLORE ANCIENT ARCHITECTURES

IN SOUTH AMERICA
Roberto Pierdiccaa,*, Eva Savina Malinvernib, Emanuele Frontonia, Francesca Colosic,
Roberto Orazic
a
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy.
[email protected]; [email protected]
b
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e dell’Architettura Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona,
Italy. [email protected]
c
Istituto per le Tecnologie Applicate ai Beni Culturali CNR, Via Salaria km. 29,300, 00016 Monterotondo Street, Roma, Italy.
[email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract:
Chan Chan is a wide archaeological site located in Peru. Its knowledge is limited to the visit of Palacio Tschudi, the only
restored up to now, whilst the majority of the site remains unknown to the visitors. The reasons are manifold. The site is
very large and difficult to visit. Some well-conserved architectures, such as Huaca Arco Iris, are very far from the core
centre. Furthermore, there are heavy factors of decay, mainly caused by illegal excavations, by marine salt and by the
devastating phenomenon of El Niño. For these reasons, the majority of the decorative elements are protected by new mud
brick walls. Finally, the vastness of the buildings makes difficult to understand their real value, even through a direct visit
of the site. In order to overcome the aforesaid problems, we designed, developed and realized the museum exhibition
presented in this paper. We named Esquina Multimedia an installation where every corner is aimed to solve a specific
problem, providing the tourists with interactive and enjoyable applications. The virtual tour allows reaching also the
unreachable areas. An Augmented Reality (AR) application has been developed in order to show ancient artefacts covered
by the earth. A web-browser has been specifically designed to show bas-reliefs, with HD visualization, anaglyph
stereoscopic view and a 3D virtual model of both the structures and the bas-reliefs. At the same time, a wall-mounted panel
representing a metric 3D reconstruction of the building helps the user to find the artefact position. Descriptions of the
hardware components and of the software details are presented, with particular focus regarding the implementation of the
application, arguing how the digital approach could represent the only answer towards a full exploitation of archaeological
sites. The paper also deals with the implementation of a web tool, specifically designed to display and browse 3D-Models.
Key words: 3D model reconstruction, augmented reality (AR), cultural heritage, digital photogrammetry, stereoscopic
view, virtual exhibition

their experience, being aware that the cultural evolution

1. Introduction of a population goes with the capability of making culture
3D model reconstruction and virtual representation of accessible, tangible, communicative and exciting
Cultural Heritage (CH) represent well-established (Maliverni, D’Annibale, Frontoni, Mancini, & Bozzi,
approaches towards a complete dissemination and 2015). There are many issues, described in the following,
valorisation of cultural goods. This is true, especially for which prevent ancient artefacts to be spread to the wide
the archaeology domain. Indeed, this research field public. For this reason, the choice of the right technology
underlies complexity and limitations that make the use of should be related to the contents shown, pursuing the
new media (and technologies) unavoidable. Two kinds of aim of an edutainment experience, rather than to the only
users can take advantage from this approach: the first educative one.
ones are the insiders, such as archaeologists, experts Despite some art curators still believe that the use of
and conservators. They have access to innovative technology will place the exposition in background, new
acquisition techniques allowing a quick and low cost data trends in the international panorama demonstrate how
gathering. The second ones are the visitors, who can such innovative tools are the best (and only) way to
exploit the potentials of new ways of communication to enhance the fruition of CH. In other words, digital and
improve their knowledge. The latter, nowadays, are even interactive applications should serve the scope of “the
more technology oriented, and there is the necessity to story to tell”, allowing to see what is invisible, without
provide immersive and multimedia solutions to enhance going too far from curators needs (Pescarin, 2014).

* Corresponding Author: Roberto Pierdicca, [email protected]

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/var.2016.5904
44
 3D VISUALIZATION TOOLS TO EXPLORE ANCIENT ARCHITECTURES IN SOUTH AMERICA

1.1. Esquina Multimedia- Museum exhibition for outdoor scenario (Pierdicca et al., 2015a). In that
the visualization of the archaeological site of occasion, a location-based service was specifically
Chan Chan developed to see the decoration of the main entrance of
the largest square of Palacio Rivero (Fig. 2).
Given the above, we present our work, realized into an
archaeological museum, proving how different solutions
can be adopted according to a specific need. The
installation, described in these pages, took place in
Trujillo, Peru, within the Museo de Sitio Chan Chan and it
was named Esquina Multimedia. Herewith is shown
another way to communicate the CH, spreading its
knowledge especially to the younger. The exhibition is
made of three sections, where different technologies are
used depending on the problem to solve. Furthermore, it
Figure 2: Panoramic view of Palacio Rivero, stitched with
allows one to discover ancient findings with different equirectangular projection. The picture shows the ruins of the
levels of details (LODs). entrance door to the main square of the palace, protected by
brick structures after the restoration.
Working on Chan Chan site, we had to cope with several
issues, listed below:
In this case we designed a stand-alone application with a
1. The site is extremely wide and it would be marker-less approach.
impossible for a tourist to have an exhaustive visit
of the whole area (Fig. 1). Finally, to enhance the perception of the architecture and
its decorations, a complete reconstruction of Huaca Arco
2. The majority of the bas-reliefs decoration are Iris (also called Huaca el Dragón) has been realized (Fig.
unreachable or invisible, since covered by earth 3).
for conservation issues.
3. The palaces and the huacas of the archaeological
complex are huge and, even during the visit on
site, cannot be perceived in their entirety.

Figure 3: Huaca Arco Iris, also called Huaca el Dragón. Detail

of the ramp and decorated walls where is visible a cumbersome
structure to protect the building from El Niño.

A web-browser allows discovering and navigating

between the bas-reliefs. This latter part of the exhibition
represents the main novelty and it will be deepening
during the dissertation.
The installation described in this paper represents a
Figure 1: Chan Chan map. With red dots are highlighted the milestone for Museo de Sitio Chan Chan, which can
monuments used for the multimedia installation. Palacio Rivero, provide its visitors with three multimedia areas, designed
not opened to the public, is situated in southern side of Chan to give an overview of the site, with different LODs.
Chan; Huaca Arco Iris is opened to visitors but far from the
archaeological area.
1.2. Making 3D models available on the web
To overcome the site wideness, we developed a virtual In addition to the innovative nature of the exhibition, the
tour, delivered from a previous research (Colosi, Gabrielli, web-site architecture has undergone to an improvement,
Malinverni, & Orazi, 2013a), allowing the visitor to browse in order to make it suitable for the management of the
the whole site. The second point, invisibility of the entire 3D model of the Huaca and of its bas-reliefs. The
decorative elements, has been solved with the use of reason of this improvement lies in the fact that 3D models
Augmented Reality (AR), a cutting-edge technology that represent the best way to convey and manipulate a big
permits to superimpose virtual contents on the screen of volume of information about the representation of a real
a mobile device, with the same point of view of the user object: shapes, colours, textures, location, size and
(Esclapés, Tejerina, Bolufer, & Esquembre, 2013; Ridel orientation. A three-dimensional environment allows the
et al., 2014). At Chan Chan the AR was tested only in an user to change his standing point or move and rotate the

Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15): 44-53, 2016 45

 PIERDICCA et al., 2016

object to improve his perception and understanding. This acquisition until the virtualization and exhibition of
large amount of data makes very heavy most of the 3D reconstructed artefacts. Acquisition and digitization (i.e.
objects and this could badly influence their use, especially virtual models, visualization, etc.), in fact, are a good
if the experience should be performed online. One of the practice for every kind of ancient site, artefact or
main issues, when dealing with complex 3D models, is the excavation (Cabrelles & Lerma, 2013). The next natural
correct balance between quality and size, in order to step is their exploitation, aiming to overcome the
assure a good user experience without compromising the obstacles that prevent the fruition of archaeological
web-site usability. Archaeology is one of the fields that findings. The potential of three-dimensional (3D) models
can benefit from the development of agile web 3D representation applied to archaeology is growing its
solutions, since the dissemination and fruition of cultural interest in research and application. One of the most
goods are strictly related to the use of digitizing tools and viable alternatives used involves 3DHOP’s software (3D
smart visualization systems (Tucci, Cini, & Nobile, 2011). Heritage Online Presenter) which is an open-source
The world of the web is changing, opening new frontiers software package used for the creation of interactive web
for the visualization and interaction with complex 3D presentations of high-resolution 3D models, oriented to
models. This change was possible thanks to the the CH field.
introduction of WebGL, a powerful and flexible graphics
library derived from the world of OpenGL. WebGL offers 3DHOP target audience goes from the museum curators
the ability to render 3D scenes within any common with some ICT experience to the experienced web
browser. Through these tools it is possible to achieve the designers who want to embed 3D contents in their
purpose of spreading complex information, by creations and from students in the CH field to small
communicating the data collected in the field with digital companies developing web applications for museum and
photogrammetry techniques for a reality-based result. CH institutions (Potenziani et al., 2015).
The work presented in this paper faces this issue, by In the Zamani project of Capetown University, authors
developing and testing a dedicated tool for the Huaca capture the spatial domain of heritage with a current focus
Arco Iris. In particular, this tool will allow a virtual visit of on Africa, by accurately recording its physical and
the entire archaeological complex, from different points of architectural structures, dimensions and positions. Sites
view. The web site will also give the possibility to have a are seen in the context of their physical environment, and
high-resolution visualization of the various bas-reliefs wherever possible, the topography of landscapes
scattered among the building. surrounding the documented sites is mapped based on
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 gives an satellite images and aerial photography (Rüther, Held,
explanation of the operative background, in addition to a Bhurtha, Schroeder, & Wessels, 2012). Barry Kemp1
brief analysis of the state of art. In Section 3 the project is presents a series of significant objects from the Egyptian
described, arguing on the motivations and requirements site of Amarna which are part of the Virtual Amarna
for its development. Section 4 provides details about the Museum. A range of objects was involved, including stone
three areas of the exhibition and a closer description of steles, ceramics, pendants, moulds and selected
the 3D web visualization tool. In Section 5 and 6, a architectural elements. This research argues that the
discussion over the adopted methodology and conclusion acquisition and creation of digital representations of
remarks are outlined respectively. heritage must be part of a comprehensive research
infrastructure (a digital ecosystem) that focuses on all the
involved elements. This includes recording methods and
2. Related works and background metadata, discovery, access and citation of digital
In the future, museums and exhibitions will continue to be objects, analysis and study, reuse and repurposing of
shaped by a wide variety of trends and drivers. New digital objects, and the critical role of a
technologies –such as AR- are providing where and when national/international digital archive.
we can have museum-like experiences. Visitors’ The advantages of using this type of method are the fast
expectation is rapidly changing and even if traditional start-up time and the reduced network load. The model is
communication is still the main channel, emerging immediately available for the user to browse, even though
technologies can definitively move towards a great at a low resolution, and it is constantly improving its
attractiveness. In this context, the development of new appearance as new data are progressively loaded. On the
digital tools to enhance CH fruition is almost a well- other hand, since refinement is driven by view-dependent
established and widespread good practice (Witcomb, criteria (observer position, orientation and distance from
2007). It has been proved by several studies that CH can the 3D model), only the data needed for the required
be largely exploited providing users with new media of navigation are used.
knowledge. The ICT (Information and Communication
Technologies) approach is carrying successful influence, Because of its diffusion, mobile devices are becoming the
for example increasing the interest of young people by preferred medium for the visualization of virtual contents.
means of new tools; furthermore, the design of a museum Among others, Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) is
exposition cannot ignore the use of new media (Lord & gaining a pivotal role in the way in which contents are
Piacente, 2014). In the archaeological domain, this trend conveyed (Ridel et al., 2014). MAR is intuitive, agile,
has been undertaken so far and increased by well- movable and enjoyable, allowing users to see digital
established pipelines of data acquisition. In Bruno et al. contents without being apart from the reality, especially
(2010) a complete workflow is shown, ranging from 3D into museums environment (Laudazi & Boccaccini, 2014).

1
http://www.amarnaproject.com

46 Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15): 44-53, 2016

 3D VISUALIZATION TOOLS TO EXPLORE ANCIENT ARCHITECTURES IN SOUTH AMERICA

All projects involving AR regarding architecture, The scheme reported in Figure 4 shows the complete
landscape and archaeology are developed in an pipeline of work that includes data acquisition of many
interdisciplinary team, that allows a responsible and complexes of the site, data processing and content
efficient use of ICT and computer-mediated reality in creation for the exhibition.
knowledge-based experiences about CH (Murru,
Fratarcangeli, & Empler, 2013). AR is powerful to convey
contents and, at the same time, is able to deliver
meaningful advantages in term of way-finding services for
both indoor (Gerval & Le Ru, 2015) and outdoor scenarios
(Gabellone, 2015).
In Pierdicca et al. (2015a), authors developed a museum
installation over the famous painting “The Ideal City” (by
Piero della Francesca, 1480-1490) placed in Urbino, Italy,
to enhance the experience of visitors in a real museum
scenario. An interactive touch-screen for a detailed
visualization of the painting provides the user with a
brushstroke-level visualization. The mobile applications
give the possibility to deepen the knowledge of the
painting with a handy tool and allow reaching a wider
public. Thanks to the AR section, users can frame the
artwork and interact with superimposed contents that are Figure 4: Pipeline of digital object development, management
a continuum between the painting and the user’s point of and exploitation in multimedia applications. Oval labels
view (Portalés, Lerma, & Pérez, 2009). The research represent the problem that each technology is able to solve for
described in this paper is partially following the latter a complete fruition of heritage goods.
study, exploiting well-established technologies for the
archaeological domain. The project was designed to overcome specific issues.
The final setup has been designed to be flexible and
3. The project of the exhibition modular, in order to be adapted to the spaces and to the
audience flows. We designed three levels of analysis,
We are operating in the framework of the Italian Mission pursuing the objective of using different technologies for
in Peru (MIPE), that is working on Chan Chan, capital of different aims. To discover the site, the Virtual Tour was
the Chimu civilization, since 2002 (Colosi et al., 2009). meant to be projected in a “black-box” room (Fig. 5).
The many objectives of the MIPE are: the valorisation of
Chan Chan and its territory through the realization of an
Archaeological Park; the international dissemination of
the information regarding the site; collecting and
organising data into a Geographical Information System
(Colosi, Gabrielli, Orazi, & Malinverni, 2013b); the virtual
or 3D reconstructions of ancient ruins, in order to show
them into the new Museum. This last will allow users to
valorise and document the Chan Chan site, by arranging
a pre-visit to the wide and complex Chimu decorative
world.
The cultural structure and decoration shown in the
exhibition were obtained from different acquisition
techniques:
 Spherical panoramas for the creation of 360° tour
(D’Annibale, Tassetti, & Malinverni, 2014).
 Digital photogrammetry for 3D reconstruction by
means of dense points clouds of some parts of Figure 5: The project of the box where the virtual tour is placed,
Palacio Rivero. giving information and providing specific tasks to the visitors.
 A complete 3D model of Huaca Arco Iris with a
new operation of data fusion from the two above An AR application was developed to discover what is
mentioned techniques. See Pierdicca, Frontoni, hidden by earth. In Pierdicca et al. (2015b) a location-
Malinverni, Colosi, & Orazi (2016) for acquisition based solution was developed to test the performances in
and reconstruction details. outdoor scenario (in this specific case the APP was
developed to visualize the central entrance door of the
The importance of the whole set of data gathered is main square of Palacio Rivero). However, the site is not
twofold: first of all a complete metrical reconstruction of opened to the public, hence we propose a marker-less
the site provides conservators with a fundamental starting solution of the same artefact, supported by a wall
point for restoration works; secondly, these data provide mounted poster displaying a high-resolution image. The
the possibility to create a virtual corner for their exposition, final result is the overlapping of the 3D model (gained with
moving from the scheme of a classical exposition of Structure from Motion techniques) of the rests in the
findings towards a digital and interactive visualization. corresponding position. The third section consists in the

Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15): 44-53, 2016 47

 PIERDICCA et al., 2016

visualization of bas-reliefs which embellish Huaca Arco contents without the necessity to replace the APP for the
Iris. A wall-mounted artwork shows the 3D model of the visitors, which can use the application with their own
building, while labels help the visitor to understand the devices. As said before, we adopted image-based
bas-reliefs position. Under this poster, a web browser tracking system (i.e. marker-less), using as tracking
displays these decorations, labelled with the same images (“trackables”) small portions of the picture. Once
reference number of the poster. In Figure 6 the layout and the video stream of the built in camera is on, the device
design of the concept is shown. implements a matching with the pre-loaded “trackables”,
searching for the key points associated to the images.
Then, the digital contents are projected on the screen
from the perspective of the camera’s view, based on the
orientation of the device.

4.2. Web-browser
In the exhibition it is possible to use a web-browser to
navigate among the bas-reliefs. For this specific case, we
developed two kinds of experiences. The first one, based
on the high-quality and high definition orthoimages; the
second one based on a virtual 3D reconstruction of the
whole complex and its bas-reliefs. In the following the two
approaches are described.

4.2.1. A web-browser based on high quality

orthoimages
Figure 6: Render view of the concept. Wall mounted poster are A dataset of hundreds pictures has been processed after
the support material for digital contents. the acquisition campaign on field, using Structure from
Motion - Multi-View Stereo (SfM-MVS) workflow.
4. Technical details regarding the
Once the 3D meshes of the artefacts were ready, it was
development of the exhibition possible to manage them into specific tools for 3D models
In the following lines, the technical details about the visualization. However, due to their huge dimension, it
development of the AR application and browser will be was difficult to manage 3D models into the browser. The
discussed. Furthermore, the next step for the exploitation adopted solution was the creation of orthoimages with
of the 3D models through the web browser is exhaustively high resolution, arising from the meshes (Fig. 8).
discussed. The portion of the exhibition regarding the
virtual tour has been realized with the suggestions
described in (Colosi et al., 2013a).

4.1. Augmented Reality

The application was designed to be used with an AR
Figure 8: The creation of orthoimages, starting from the 3D
browser. A wall-mounted poster reports: some reconstruction of the bas-reliefs. In this case, the operator is
information of Palacio Rivero, the HD image of the performing the removal of contours.
entrance door of the main square and a QR code to
retrieve the 3D model channel, stored in a remote
Before inserting the images into the browser, a tidy
repository (Fig. 7).
process of quality enhancement has been conducted, in
order to provide the user with more clear and sharp
images. In the example reported in Figure 9 is shown a
little detail, highlighting how the quality of the image has
been enhanced to obtain the best result for the
visualization. To permit the use of huge imagery for users
visualization purposes, we used a virtual texturing
technique, a combination of classical MIP-mapping and

Figure 7: The poster installed for the AR experience. The

instructions on the right drive the observers for the use of the
application.

Figure 9: A detail of quality enhancement through sharpening

The advantage of storing AR contents on an external virtual memory usage. The approach consists in storing
mask. The comparison between the two images highlights that
repository lies in the possibility to change or update tiled images composing
the image a is
on the right multi-resolution
more detailed. pyramid,

48 Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15): 44-53, 2016

 3D VISUALIZATION TOOLS TO EXPLORE ANCIENT ARCHITECTURES IN SOUTH AMERICA

loading only the tiles needed to perform the texture at user need special optical filters, provided during the exhibition.
request. For each level of zoom, the set of tiles In Figure 10 a small example of the anaglyph image is
corresponding to the observed texture appears shown.
(2D+LoDs/scale coordinates) (Petrovic, Vanoni, Richter,
Levy, & Kuester, 2014). The final result is reached with a wall-mounted poster
containing the 3D model representation of Huaca Arco
Finally, to augment the 3D perception of the images, we Iris, with the correct position of the decoration (Fig. 11).
realized the anaglyph view, made of two monochrome This last was labelled with the same code of the web
stereoscopic images, each composed with a dominant of browser, so that the user can interact between the artwork
a different colour superimposed and printed on the same and the digital tool. A screenshot of the browser is
support. To obtain the 3D perception, of course, the users reported in Figure 12.

Figure 10: Detail of one portion of the decoration in anaglyphic Figure 11: The wall-mounted poster representing the 3D virtual
image, prepared for the stereoscopic visualization. reconstruction of Huaca Arco Iris. Decoration has been labelled
with E (stand for External) and I (stand for Internal) to help the
user orienting during the navigation.

Figure 12: A screen shot of the browser running. The body of the page contains the picture of the decoration with the label, able to be
zoomed. The footer of the page allows users to scroll between the decorations. The upper right part allows users to switch between 2D
and 3D mode.

Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15): 44-53, 2016 49

 PIERDICCA et al., 2016

colour, texture, and reflection map of individual materials.

4.2.2. The management of 3D models through the
To apply textures to the bas-reliefs scattered among the
web-browser
building and to export the model in OBJ format (the initial
The work has been realized through the use of some 3D model was in 3DM format, not compatible with
basic libraries for the 3D web rendering: WebGL, Three.js) the software Rhynoceros was used. In order to
Three.js and Tween.js. The first is needed for the real export the file, in a suitable format to be managed within
time visualization of the scene. In order to be able to Three.js, the following steps should be performed
display 3D objects in a proper manner with Three.js, a 1) In Rhynoceros command line write <SaveAs> and
scene, a camera and a renderer are needed, so that the press <Enter>.
model can be rendered in real time. The scene variable
is a container that is used to store and keep track of all 2) Write the name of the model and select the .obj
the objects that we want to display. The renderer is format, select also <Save textures> and click on
responsible for calculating how the scene will look like in <Options>.
the browser, based on the camera angle. Finally,
Tween.js was used to develop transitions of properties. 3) Select <Export material definitions>, unselect
Once the scene is set up, it is possible to import the 3D <Wraplonglines> and press <OK> to save the file.
models, realized with the methodology described in At the end of these steps, the OBJ and the associated
Pierdicca et al. (2016). Each of them is featured by two MTL files are fully compatible with Three.js.
separate files, respectively in OBJ format (object) and
MTL (material file library). An object file is a format The first outcome of the Web-Interface of Huaca Arco Iris
developed by Wavefront Technologies, used to define is summarised in Figure 13. The screen layout has a
the geometry and other graphic properties about a main area, including the Huaca Arco Iris structure with its
general objects. By this format all the information for the bas-reliefs in the real position. The visitor is placed in a
definition of lines, polygons, curves and freeform first personal perspective view. By clicking, holding and
surfaces can be listed. Lines and polygons are described moving the mouse, the direction of the view around the
by their vertexes, curves and surfaces; these objects are model changes accordingly. The entire element can be
defined by special checkpoints and by other parameters zoomed-in or out, within limits, using the scroll wheel on
that depend on the curve type. Material library files the mouse. There are two buttons on the scene: camera
contain one or more material definitions, including the and full screen. Pressing the camera button, the

Figure 13: The structure when the browser is opened. The Figure 14: One of the bas-reliefs has been selected. The slider
darker areas are the bas-reliefs visible from the current point is semi-transparent until the user is moving the mouse on it.
of view. If the mouse is above the bas-relief (No. 17 in the The mini map indicates that the user is observing the related
picture), its area is highlighted and a tip is shown. artefact.

Figure 15: The sidebar is active and the user can choose the Figure 16: The layout moved to the selected bas-relief,
highlighted bas-relief. displayed to be explored with all its 3D features

50 Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15): 44-53, 2016

 3D VISUALIZATION TOOLS TO EXPLORE ANCIENT ARCHITECTURES IN SOUTH AMERICA

structure will start to auto rotate until the user pushes a

second time on the same icon or pushes on a bas-relief.
The second button allows users to switch in full screen
mode. Some commands allow users to toggle the
hemisphere light or the directional light, to change
lighting or to change the camera view around the model.
Simply by moving the mouse over any bas-reliefs, the
user can note the entire bas-reliefs area highlighted (Fig.
13) by a colour that stands out from everything else and
a small circle hint that indicates the bas-relief name
ordered by number and position (internal or external of
the structure’s wall).
Clicking on any bas-relief will help the visitor to move to
another section that is useful to display in the middle of
the scene. Clicking, holding and moving the mouse will
change the model view direction and with the mouse
wheel the visitor can zoom-in or out to the finest details.
A back button at the top left of the screen teleports the
visitor to the first main area. Holding the right mouse
button and moving it on the screen the user can shift the
work in the main X and Y axis. This is also possible using
the arrows keys. The mini-map in the bottom serves as
navigator to highlight the bas-reliefs selected by the user,
allowing him in orienting the building. A clear explanation
is shown in Figure 14.
A semi-transparent sidebar, placed at the bottom of the
screen, provides thumbnails about all bas-reliefs and it is
focused on the current selected one. This can be opaque
and totally visible when the user moves the mouse over
it. All thumbnails are clickable and the visitor can jump to
any bas-relief, as shown in Figs. 15 and 16.

5. Discussion: the exhibition running at

Chan Chan Museum de Sitio
The exhibition was opened to the public the 27th
November 2015, and we witnessed to a significant
success of the installation. The set of pictures (Fig. 17
and 18) shows the users when interacting with the three
areas of the Esquina Multimedia.
Figure 18: Some pictures of the Esquina Multimedia during the
exhibition. Top: users interacting with the web-browser with 3D
glasses for anaglyph view. Centre: user discovering 3D models
with AR function. Bottom: the virtual tour running and user
discovering the whole archaeological site of Chan Chan.

and interns is often not confident with complex

multimedia systems. Maintenance is thus limited to
professional hardware parts and not always necessary
thanks to the activity of experts in the field and to clear
and reliable pipeline of work. The architecture is tailored
to host and show different content, which can be updated
using remote control (only if museum is equipped with
internet connection).

5.2. Remarks of the web site usability studies

Figure 17: Visitor using the AR browser.
Regarding the usability, particular attention was given to
the simplicity of use and to ensure that the user could
reach the desired result in an accurate and complete
5.1. Overall assessment and maintenance way. With just a few intuitive steps, it is possible to
One of the most crucial point to be considered when explore all the areas of the archaeological site. Each bas-
designing such types of installation in museums is the relief is highlighted on the structure so the attention can
simplicity of the system and easiness of maintenance of be focused on it. A further aid to usability is given by the
the multimedia product, as expertise of museum staff fact that with simple keyboard operations, it is possible

Virtual Archaeology Review, 7(15): 44-53, 2016 51

 PIERDICCA et al., 2016

to change the camera position and to choose the type of different perspectives. Furthermore, the user has the
light that illuminates the scene. The bas-reliefs rotation chance to interact with it in order to explore the various
angles were restricted to ensure a proper frontal decorative compositions, enjoying a view of all the
visualization. Likewise zoom, horizontal and vertical appreciable details in the 3D model. This type of
displacement are bound to not give to the user the feeling approach forces the user to interact with only the 3D
that the object can leave the scene. The entire scene models (for example the bas-reliefs are accessible by
objects are suspended from the ground for two reasons; clicking directly on certain points of the structure without
the first is to make the user aware of their interactivity; the need of a secondary menu for their selection). Next
and the other is to put more emphasis by releasing them steps of our research will focus of the management of
from the rest of the scene. During the switching between complex 3D objects. In fact, one of the most significant
structure and bas-relief, the camera position is saved: in problems is that the model is actually visible only after its
this way it can be restored at the end of the bas-reliefs loading is completed. This can affect the user
tour. experience, depending on network infrastructure. In
addition, this new browsing concept in an interactive
6. Conclusion and future works web-site may not be easily accepted by the average of
the users because they probably feel more comfortable
In this work, we presented a novel and interactive way to with a standard web-site. New features could enhance
show the priceless heritage of Chan Chan site. The the user-interaction experience and the improvement of
adoption of state-of-the-art technologies, designed to the rendering stage. A deeper Three.js use, might lead
overcome commons problems of an archaeological to a better web-site usability. Future developments could
settlement, is the demonstration of how cultural objects lead to the use of much smaller 3D models (trying to
are protagonist only through a bi-directional interaction maintain unaltered their quality) and the enhancement of
of the visitors. By arranging the virtual tour in the the loading techniques could reduce the user’s waiting
museum, to the tourist who cannot visit the entire site is time.
given the possibility to reach far areas and have the
overview of the whole settlement. The AR application Acknowledgements
allows visitors to discover hidden artefacts. The web-
browser, containing the HD images of the decorations, The authors would like to thank Daniela Amadei for the
gives a completely new way of experiencing objects with concept of the installation, Gianni Plescia for the browser
a resolution that cannot be reached by the naked eye. implementation. A particular thanks to our students, who
Further, the design of a 3D visualization increases the worked hardly during their stage. E. Battistoni, V.
reality of the experience. The mediation between Cernetti, A. Rahali, K. Sifakis and V. Tombolini for the
classical exposition techniques (e.g. posters) to enhance creation of contents. Caldarella Domenico, Di Carlo
the interaction with digital contents has proved to be a Michele, Napoletano Marco, Rosica Rossano, for their
winning choice. contribution on the management of the 3D objects within
the web browser. Our students are our greatest
Currently, the user is able to navigate the entire resource. Thanks also to all the staff of Museo de Sitio
archaeological structure, in many directions and from for the support.

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