CHER-Ob

The study of cultural heritage involves many different activities, including visualizing digital data, analyzing information, and sharing results. Current technologies focus on providing better tools for data representation and processing, neglecting the importance of analysis and sharing. In this article, we present a software system, CHER-Ob, which offers powerful tools for evaluating and publishing the results of cultural heritage research. CHER-Ob provides the capability to visualize and add various types of annotations to data in a wide variety of formats. These annotations assist in the analysis phase and are used for sharing the results of a study. A written report can be generated and automatically illustrated using the annotations. In addition, an “animation scheme” is associated with each type of annotation. The schemes make it possible to generate an introductory video overview of an analysis by selecting preferences and annotations. A series of animated sequences of 2D and 3D objects will appear in a user-specified order in a video subtitled by annotations. The system is useful for integrating cultural and digital resources as well as for providing a method to author materials for disseminating cultural heritage findings to the public.