ITR: Solving the Puzzle of the Forma Urbis Romae

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will use computer shape matching algorithms to assemble the remaining fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae, a giant marble map of ancient Rome. The original, measuring 60 feet wide by 45 feet high, dates to the second century AD. The map now consists of 1,163 fragments, and is incomplete. Piecing the remaining fragments together is a unique challenge for computer graphics research. If successful, it will offer to archeologists a resource of great importance. In order to test the graphics algorithms the raw data was acquired at great cost and effort. A team of faculty and students from Stanford spent a month on site digitizing the shape and surface appearance of every known fragment using laser scanning and digital color photography. The processed raw data now consists of 8 billion polygons and 6 thousand color images, amounting to 40GB of data. The project hopes to produce and disseminate a database of 3D models and photographs of this famous archaeological document and in the process, contribute new algorithms for shape matching for objects of kind. --