Integrated Volume Visualisation of Archaeological Ground Penetrating Radar Data

Abstract

The non-invasive prospection of our archaeological heritage is one of the main tasks of modern archaeology and often provides the necessary bases for further activities, such as special protection or intensified research. Geophysical prospections using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) are an invaluable tool for the non-destructive exploration of archaeological monuments still buried in the ground. However, the analysis and interpretation of the data sets generated in this way is a time-consuming and complex process and requires not only three-dimensional imagination but also a broad understanding of the archaeological remains. Therefore, understandable 3D visualisations are in great demand. This paper presents a novel integrated visualisation approach, which supports conjoint visualisation of scenes composed of heterogeneous data including GPR volumes and 3D models of interpretations and reconstructions. Visual depiction of relevant dataset areas and archaeological structures is facilitated based on flexible and localised visualisation techniques. Furthermore, the rendering system supports the computation of dynamic label layouts for scenes annotations.