Experimental similarity assessment for a collection of fragmented artifacts

TL;DR

This paper evaluates existing 3D similarity matching techniques for fragmented artifacts in the Visual Heritage domain, highlighting current limitations and identifying areas needing further development to improve archaeologists' search capabilities.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of how current 3D similarity methods perform on artifact fragments and discusses necessary advancements for better cross-collection search support.

Findings

Current techniques partially address fragment similarity

Shape alone is insufficient for accurate matching

Further development is needed for style, material, and decoration analysis

Abstract

In the Visual Heritage domain, search engines are expected to support archaeologists and curators to address cross-correlation and searching across multiple collections. Archaeological excavations return artifacts that often are damaged with parts that are fragmented in more pieces or totally missing. The notion of similarity among fragments cannot simply base on the geometric shape but style, material, color, decorations, etc. are all important factors that concur to this concept. In this work, we discuss to which extent the existing techniques for 3D similarity matching are able to approach fragment similarity, what is missing and what is necessary to be further developed.