This application enables the creation of a high quality 3D model of an archaeological artefact via process known as photo-masking. There has been a revolution in 3D modelling in recent years and it is now relatively easy to construct such models from ordinary digital photographs. Isolating the object depicted in these photographs, and masking out the background, is an important first step to achieving high quality results. The final 3D model will be made publicly available and is useful not only for basic documentation purposes, but also for graphical displays in museums, for inclusion in gaming and virtual reality environments, or for identifying different sub-styles in otherwise similar types of artefact (that might tell us about the date of the artefact, where it was made, or by whom).

This particular photo-masking application is looking at the Oxborough dirk, an extremely rare and out-sized Bronze Age weapon found in Oxborough, Norfolk, England.

We would like people to draw a polygon around the object that they see in each photograph in order to identify its outline and exclude the image background. This allows the 3D modelling process to concentrate on the object itself and ignore irrelevant background information.

If you are interested in what a 3D completed model looks like, please have a look at the example here for a MicroPasts palstave model.

This project is on behalf of the:

Find the code on GitHub

Contributors to this project

Daniel Pett, Adi Keinan-Schoonbaert, Robert Kaleta, Ernst Schnell, Joellen mcGann, Taissa Csaky, Nina Sharman, Jane Fellows, Denis Antoine, Heidi Lund, M. P., Maria Christakou, Christopher Wai, Michael George Adams, Holly Peterson, Jennifer Kirkpatrick, Teresa Gilmore, Shawn Day, Andy Paterson, Stefania Picciola, Lino Traini, Juan Carlos Arqueros, maurice nicholson, Kevin Gunn, Gordana Dimovska, Matthias Jakobi, Gail H, Steffi Kremer