An Online Dissemination Workflow for the Scientific Process in CH through Semantic 3D: EMtools and EMviq Open Source Tools

Abstract

This article explores the use of open source 3D tools to improve the transformation of the archaeological record into a virtual reconstruction. The goal of the research was to improve the dissemination of complete reconstructive Extended Matrix (EM) datasets, organized by epochs, to allow a “time travel” experience, by means of the EMviq online service “metaphor”. This article presents an incremental version (ver. 1.3.1) of EMtools (add-on for Blender 3D) and a renewed version of EMviq. These two original open source (GPL3) tools have been developed, on one hand, to facilitate the process of semantic enrichment and source-based 3D modeling of cultural contexts (EMtools) and, on the other hand, to visually inspect data within immersive virtual reality viewers, online (WebXR), or via mobile devices (EMviq). An application case is shown to illustrate the entire work-flow from the archaeological stratigraphic reading to the representation of the virtual reconstruction of what a context must have looked like at a given time in antiquity.