Project profile: 3DUNDERWORLD
Cypriot scuba diver Charalambos Poullis considered the difficulties for marine archaeologists, leading him to apply for EU funding to develop software that reproduces underwater artefacts.
After studying in Manchester, UK, and Los Angeles, US, Poullis now works as an associate professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. His current research focuses on computer vision and computer graphics, and in the fundamental and applied research covering acquisition technologies and 3D reconstruction, photo-realistic rendering, feature extraction and classification, virtual and augmented reality.
Many sunken cities, ancient ports and shipwrecks exist in European seas or on European coasts. Although these historic artefacts have to some extent been preserved, much would have been lost or damaged beyond repair without marine archaeology.
Poullis, the 3DUNDERWORLD co-ordinator, said: “I am a scuba diver myself, so during [a] dive I witnessed first-hand the amazing work (both excavating and documenting) that the marine archaeologists do, but also the difficulties that they face.
“There is no available software which can achieve a high level of accuracy, has limited to no restrictions, and has a straight forward procedure to set up, let alone be used in a set-up where minimal interaction is required. Although this can be guaranteed in lab conditions – we had set up a large aquarium in the lab where we were doing our tests – this is not the case in an underwater environment, where everything is dynamic.”
By building new codes and datasets, 3DUNDERWORLD is able to produce high-quality models requiring just a single software installation.
A prototype outperformed professional scanners and was made available online for free. But Poullis was not satisfied and has now developed a third generation of scanner that uses an array of cameras and lights, is more energy-efficient, and is easier to set up and adapt for underwater scanning.
The project was made possible through the EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions pillar under Horizon 2020’s predecessor, the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).
Although now complete, Poullis said the project, and the EU funding, helped further his – and local researchers’ – academic careers.
Find out more about 3DUNDERWORLD here.
