Short URL

The Mission of InVirMet

 

Other Internet Virtual Metrology Lab (InVirMet) areas:

Loading, please wait...

The problem ….

Many scholarly disciplines have as their core the measurement and analysis of objects. These may range from the very small to the very large, it might be a small bead, a bone fragment, an object of manufacture, a building or even an entire community. The ability to reproduce these measurements is at the core of the scientific method. In disciplines such as archaeology, where the resource may be destroyed or an object repatriated, measurement may be the only evidence that remains. Researchers face an impossible situation. To anticipate all the possible measurement that might be required in the future is impossible and to take all possible measurement today is enormously time consuming and perhaps fruitless. Even where the object remains access to measurement can be problematic. If the item is not portable, perhaps because of its size or fragility, to reproduce a measurement requires travel to the object. In most cases we must be satisfied with the measurements taken at the place and at the time. But what if new questions arise, or if there measurement taken do not address the issues with which we are concerned. Or perhaps we question conclusions that were drawn and believe that “another” measurement of “another” aspect of the thing measured would address our concerns. In the past we could, possibly, travel to the object and take another set of measurement. But if the object were fragile, lost or otherwise inaccessible we had no options. These and similar problems have bedeviled scholars for generations!

 

Towards a solution …

Because of the development of new technologies many of there problems can be now be much more successfully addressed. While there remain important questions, the development of photogrammetric and laser scanning technologies now provide a methodology by which it is possible to create a reproducible, distributable digital representation of an object, site, or even a community that provides for an nearly infinite number of measurements, measurements that can be made remotely at any time in the future. The InVirMet web pages are designed to move this topic forward and provide an entry point for others into this important new area of research. We believe that as the methodology develops and becomes more widely accessible it will be a key element in a revolutionary new approach to many disciplines, particularly those such as archaeology where the record is so fragile. These pages and those that they link to provide a set of resources about the approach and its usage.

 

Towards a future and reproducible measurement …

There are two key technological developments that make this approach possible. They are (1) highly accurate point cloud development instruments and software and (2) software that can create, distribute and “measure” elements within these point clouds. Point clouds are (usually dense) sets of X, Y, Z (and commonly I and/or R,G.B) values that represent the surface of an object. They are frequently, though not always, derived by laser or similar scanning. We have more on this approach on the How we do it section. These data, when properly measured and documented, provide an intensive (and extensive) set of observations that can be used for many purposes. Obtaining these observations, has until mid-2005, required access to both the data and to software capable of processing it. A popular software for this purpose was PolyWorks ™ from Innovmetric. In mid-2005 Innovmetric released for free distribution their IMView ™ software. This software takes a 3D point cloud data set in proper format and allows the user to conduct virtual mensuration of any observable element in the data! A quick overview of IMView's capabilities are available at About ImView.