Can ‘computational archaeology’ do to cultural heritage what carbon dating did to the field of archaeology?

Prof. Fernand S. Cohen

(Fernand S. Cohen, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA)

This talk addresses the application of computer vision research, visualization, and computational methods to cultural heritage. In specific, it explores the current challenges in archaeological and cultural heritage that computational archaeology studies can help to solve. Research and application developments over the past decade have proven that computer vision research, visualization, and computational methods are natural tools for meeting cultural heritage needs. Several avenues important for archaeological and cultural preservation and interpretation have been explored with new and emerging technologies greatly aiding cultural heritage preservationists and transforming all phases of archaeological practice from discovery in the field, through artifact analysis and conservation, to the presentation of new findings to the public. Computational archaeology efforts range from the creation of virtual libraries (digital publishing of field records) to computer assisted artifact mending technologies to 3D presentations of historical site interpretations. Computational archaeology research promises more efficient, timely, and cost effective data retrieval and optimized knowledge transmission and reception. This talk is devoted to the current challenges, research issues, and advances in the application of computer technologies to existing cultural landscapes, architectural structures, and archaeological cultural heritage. It describes state-of-the-art novel computational archaeology methods ranging from 3D shape modeling and reconstruction; thin shell object reconstruction; measurement of style in order to recognize the artisan or factory that produced the artifact; monitoring, cataloguing and visualization; surface marking and texture modeling for vessel reconstruction; artifact stitching and mending and shard modeling; laser scanning, precision 3D digital modeling, and virtual reality for virtual site navigation and virtual museums. Finally, it introduces the emerging field of computational archaeology as a new multi-disciplinary field and show how it is used as an educational tool in higher education as well as in high schools.

Biography:

Fernand S. Cohen (IEEE SM 96) received his B. Sc. degree in Physics from the American University in 1978, and M. Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Brown University, Providence, RI, in 1980 and 1983, respectively. He joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Rhode Island in 1983 as an Assistant Professor. In 1984 he joined the Robotics Research Center, University of Rhode Island and was responsible for the Vision Research in the center from 1986-1987. In 1985 he was the recipient of a Research Excellence Award from the College of Engineering, University of Rhode Island. He was in 1986 invited by the French government (mission scientifique) to tour research laboratories and universities. In 1987 he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University as a named Chair Associate Professor (George Beggs). He is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and is affiliated with the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, and serves as Director of the Imaging and Computer Vision Center (ICVC). In the summer 1994 he was invited as a visiting Professor by the National Institute of Research in Information and Automation (INRIA) in Sophia Antipolis, France. He was awarded the Tom Moore Teaching Award, ECE Department, Drexel University, in May 2003. He was also the recipient of a CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientique) fellowship in the summer of 2005. He has worked in the area of computer vision and sensor networks, as well as in the area of early cancer detection using ultrasound and optical probes and has published extensively in these areas over the last three decades. He published over 130 journal and reviewed conference publications and has graduated 15 Ph. D. students, and has had over 10 million dollars funding from NIH, NSF, and NSA. He has numerous papers with over 200 citations. His most recent projects are: computational archaeology (NFS) and person recognition and tracking in crowded scenes (NSA). He was keynote speakers at many conferences more recently in Thailand and Barcelona. His research interests include pattern recognition, computer vision, medical image processing, sensor networks, and applied stochastic processes.