– Very often there is a gap in between what is developed at the level of technology and what is really exploited at the level of practice.

A woman. Lucia Mancini. Photo. — Lucia Mancini is a core member in the Heritage Science theme and a senior researcher at the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, ZAG.

Lucia Mancini, core member in the Heritage Science theme, and senior researcher at the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, ZAG, was motivated to organise the recent workshop on advanced visualization tools in heritage science in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in March, as she and her fellow theme members are eager to close the gap between what is possible to do with new technologies, and what is actually implemented in practice among heritage science professionals.

For 2,5 days, over 50 participants, who included researchers and heritage professionals from Slovenia, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, France, Norway, Germany, Croatia, Czechia, and Denmark, heard about a range of different types of software and tools that can be used to quantify and visualise data, e.g., tomographic datasets. By including a breath of practices, the aim was to showcase the multitude of possibilities that exist to analyse data and present it visually.

Lucia Mancini explains that the potential for expanding the use of visualization techniques based on non-destructive tomographic methods in heritage science is immense. These techniques not only offer new ways to analyse data but also enable the presentation of cultural artifacts to new audiences—for example, through Augmented Reality (AR).

– With our workshop we wanted to introduce some of the most advanced techniques and approaches in visualisation so that people can start exploring them in their daily work, she says.

She also says that the full immersion in visualization technologies, including volume rendering, Augmented and Virtual Reality (VR), enabled participants to look at their data from a different and more complete perspective.

Hands-on approach to engage participants

A man, Emanuel Larsson. Photo. — Emanuel Larsson is LINXS Co-Director. He also works for the platform InfraVis.

Including a hands-on approach was an important aspect of the workshop as the aim is for professionals to implement the tools in practice. Emanuel Larsson, LINXS Co-Director, who also works for the platform InfraVis, a Swedish National Infrastructure that provides advanced visualization services, held a tutorial on how to make your own Augmented Reality app. The app can be used to make 3D-objects from X-ray tomography experiments and can also be used for interactive poster presentations.

– I am a firm believer that you learn by doing. The whole idea with my session was that each and every one should leave with something tangible, that they can use for themselves, says Emanuel Larsson.

He has long experience of preparing samples, performing experiments and analysing data. He says that it does not matter what type of sample one wants to visualise as the data can always be rendered in a 3D volume.

– Being able to visualize samples is absolutely key for communicating your data. It is also important for collaborations with researchers from different fields, as the visualisation becomes a bridge for explaining what you do.

Tools for fusing data from different experiments

The participants were also introduced to two new tools for optimising and fusing data from different experiments. Data analysis is a major challenge within heritage science as the samples often are multiscale, and that multiple phases can exist in the one sample (for example bone and metal, ranging from mm up to cm). This necessitates the use of tailored multimodal techniques and approaches, ranging from laboratory scale to large scale synchrotron X-ray and neutron experiments. The multimodal nature of the data makes their processing and analysis very challenging.

– It is really exciting that there now are tools which can be used to analyse different datasets more effectively. This is an area we want to focus more on within the theme, says Lucia Mancini.

Integrating the best of different approaches and technologies

The workshop ended with a roundtable discussion on how to work more effectively with issues such as sample preparation and visualisation. One important question focused on how to better merge different visualization tools. All the presented software tools and programmes come with both advantages and disadvantages: how can cultural heritage professional use the best approaches from both?

– This is an important discussion. While it is crucial to learn more about how to visualise data, it is also important to simultaneously work towards integrating the best features of the different tools into a suite of optimal programmes. Learning all the tools that are out there also takes time and it should be wisely spent, says Lucia Mancini.

Emanuel Larsson agrees:

– I think over the next years we will see a consolidation of tools with increased focus on both Virtual and Augmented Reality.

The workshop was co-organised by the Heritage Science theme, LINXS, DTU, E-RIHS, CNR and the University Museum of Bergen.