Stereo reconstruction of prehistoric footprints
The preservation and understanding of our past is fundamental to our development as a society and without the dedicated work of scientists, archaeologists and historians, the clues as to how we have evolved over the millennia would be lost. The work underlying this thesis provides a permanent 3-dimensional record of the hominid trackway discovered at Laetoli, Tanzania in 1978 from the stereo photographs taken during the expedition. Despite great care and attention from the archaeologists, many of the footprints have, since initial excavation, been irreparably damaged and as a result, the photographs and 3-dimensional models produced are all that remain of a vitally important discovery. In order to overcome issues presented by the original stereo photographs, robust reconstruction techniques have been implemented in conjunction with a novel segmentation approach for the extraction of the footprint from the background surface. The accuracy of the resulting models is then assessed by way of photogrammetric plots of the footprints, drawn soon after their discovery. This is achieved via a novel contour matching and evaluation technique. Finally, the results of the application of these algorithms to the entire laetoli
Ross, Alistair
Stereo reconstruction of prehistoric footprints. The preservation and understanding of our past is fundamental to our development as a society and without the dedicated work of scientists, archaeologists and historians, the clues as to how we have evolved over the millennia would be lost. The work underlying this thesis provides a permanent 3-dimensional record of the hominid trackway discovered at Laetoli, Tanzania in 1978 from the stereo photographs taken during the expedition. Despite great care and attention from the archaeologists, many of the footprints have, since initial excavation, been irreparably damaged and as a result, the photographs and 3-dimensional models produced are all that remain of a vitally important discovery. In order to overcome issues presented by the original stereo photographs, robust reconstruction techniques have been implemented in conjunction with a novel segmentation approach for the extraction of the footprint from the background surface. The accuracy of the resulting models is then assessed by way of photogrammetric plots of the footprints, drawn soon after their discovery. This is achieved via a novel contour matching and evaluation technique. Finally, the results of the application of these algorithms to the entire laetoli
reconstruction prehistoric preservation past fundamental development society without dedicated work scientist archaeologist historian clue evolve millennium would lose work underlie provide permanent dimensional record hominid discover tanzania photograph take expedition despite_great care attention archaeologist many since initial excavation damage photograph dimensional model produce remain vitally important discovery order overcome issue present_original photograph robust reconstruction technique implement conjunction novel segmentation extraction background surface accuracy result model assess way plot draw soon discovery achieve via novel contour match evaluation technique finally application algorithm entire