TITLE:
A Multi-Resolution Photogrammetric Framework for Digital Geometric Recording of Large Archeological Sites: Ajloun Castle-Jordan
AUTHORS:
A’kif Al-Fugara, Rida Al-Adamat, Yahya Al-Shawabkeh, Omar Al-Kour, Abdel Rahman Al-Shabeeb
KEYWORDS:
Ajloun Castle, 3D Modeling, SFM, Terrestrial Images, Aerial Photos, Archaeological Documentation, Photogrammetry
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.7 No.3,
March
31,
2016
ABSTRACT: The generation of reality-based 3D
models of archeological sites is the future of representing existing ancient
structures. Such approach requires substantial economic and logistical costs
which limit this application. In this context, this paper presents the use of
photogrammetric workflow, based on Structure from Motion techniques (SfM) to
derive 3D metric information from Structure-and-Motion images. The
interdisciplinary 3D modeling framework consists of fusion of multi resolution
images from both overlapped low-altitude aerial and multi-view terrestrial
imagery. The acquisition of aerial photographs survey was based on archived
oblique aerial stereo pair photos acquired from the Aerial Photographic Archive
for Archaeology in the Middle East (APAAME) project, while terrestrial of close
range photos covering the castle walls has been acquired using portable camera.
Camera calibration and orientation were carried out by VisualSFM, CMPMVS
(Multi-View Reconstruction) and SURE (Photogrammetric Surface Reconstruction
from Imagery) software. The resulted cloud points were processed using cloud
Compare, MeshLab, Agisoft, and Skethup Softwares. A complete 3D digital
geometric recording of the site was accomplished based on dense 3D point clouds
with realistic metric accuracy and photorealistic performance to meet all the
surveying and archaeological needs. The final Ajloun castle’s digital model
geometry was added as a 3D building layer on Google Earth.