ArchAIDE

The essential tool for the automatic recognition of archaeological potsherds.

ArchAIDE App is a tool for the automatic recognition of the archaeological potsherds. The ArchAIDE app is the result of ArchAIDE project (www.archaide.eu): a research and innovation project led by a consortium of European Universities and SMEs, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No. 693548.

ArchAIDE is an innovative app for tablets and smartphones, designed as an essential tool for archaeologists. ArchAIDE wants to optimise and economise the process of pottery identification, making knowledge accessible wherever archaeologists are working.

Using the ArchAIDE tools users will be supported by intelligent agents in the identification of the decoration class or the form type of a pottery sherd starting forme an image eventually taken with the mobile device camera. The automatic classification is based on the classes defined in the Reference Database develop by the ArchAIDE project. Anonymous users are missing the capability of storing the sherds in the device and on the ArchAIDE Server. The registration is FREE and gives the users a set of useful functionalities for the documentation of pottery sherds. Registered users may help the ArchAIDE team to improve the intelligent engines enriching its collections with new archaeological classes of ceramics. ArchAIDE is building a wide archaeological collaborative network to do that and everyone can be a part of it. For more information write to archaideproject@gmail.com.

Recognising a potsherd with ArchAIDE App is very simple, users have just to:

1) Take a photo via a mobile device

2) send the photo to the system

3) wait few seconds and receive the answers

4) choose the better one

5) save and archive it in your assemblage

6) share the information with the community.

ArchAIDE system is now available for Roman Amphorae, Terra Sigillata Italica, Terra Sigillata Hispanica, Majolica of Montelupo. Recognition tools are now available for Roma Terra Sigillata Italica and Majolica of Montelupo Fiorentino.

ArchAIDE helps archaeologist to simplify their job, bringing with them paperless scientific references, sharing information with their team and with the archaeological community around the world, collecting, organising and archiving data of archaeological potsherds.

Functionalities

Users can access

1) ArchAIDE knowledge-base: a collection of search & retrieval tools that allows accessing the database of reference classes for types, decoration and stamps. ArchAIDE system is now available for Roman Amphorae, Roman Terra Sigillata (Italica, Hispanica, and South Gaulish) and Majolica of Montelupo Fiorentino.

2) Decoration recognition process which consists:

- Select the image

- Modify the image using the manipulation tools

- Isolate the sherd in the image

- Evaluate the results

- Save the results (if the user is logged in and the results are good)

- Manually classify the image by visual comparison

3) Shape recognition process which consists:

- Image selection and manipulation

- Definition of the scale factor

- Extraction of the external profile

- Extraction of the internal profile

- Evaluation of results

- Manual classification (alternative)

- Save the info in a sherd (for authenticated users)

4) Stamp classification process which consists of a search engine.

Authenticated users (only)

- May collect and store data through the app. The information about sherds should be registered under a specific assemblage that belongs to a site. All the registered users own at least one site (i.e. “Default site”) in which it exists at least one predefined assemblage (i.e. “Uncategorised”). Sites and assemblages are the minimum context information required to store a sherd.

- May synchronise off-line data when they are online. The synchronisation process is seamlessly carried on in the background each time the device is connected to the internet via WI-FI or 3G/4G. Users can access the Synchronisation process through a dedicated monitor.