Game engines, photogrammetry and deep learning for Antarctic heritage visualization: 2020 Work-in-progress

• Main Authors: Morse, P, Staal, T, Reading, A
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) 2020
• Subjects: Creative Arts and Writing; Visual arts; Visual arts not elsewhere classified; Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://ecite.utas.edu.au/143898

Antarctic Heritage presents unrivalled opportunities for contemporary computational visualizationtechniques. These range from compelling immersive heritage experiences for the general public,through to the more exacting development of accurate digital archives for scholarly use. Game engines have a wide variety of heritage applications as development environments forcomputational humanities, digital museology and GLAM-sector applications. Reconstruction ofhistoric Antarctic sites using satellite and other geophysical data in concert with photogrammetricscene reconstruction enable the construction of physically accurate heritage site models. These canbe displayed as immersive screen experiences (e.g. VR, Augmented Reality and Domeenvironments) and afford novel visual analytics approaches to Antarctic heritage data. Associatedhistorical textual, map, photographic and film materials can be restored, animated, translated into3D scenes and actors, and colourised using machine learning techniques (Deep Learning)employed in the film, special effects and games industries. Immersive interactive simulations that embed historic materials demonstrate new ways of interactingwith museum collections and scientific archives, new digital methodologies of historical scholarshipand effective ways of exposing fragile archival materials for general and specialist audiences.Interactive post-cinematic narratives suggest novel opportunities for dramatising the experience ofsignificant artefacts, bringing place, biography, history and science alive. Remote environments,both in space and time, become far more accessible and available to contemporary enquiry. A demonstration model of the Mawsons Huts Historic Site will be presented, using a computergame engine.