Ubiquitous Digital Imaging Systems

In this paper we will describe the design, construction and application of a wearable digital imaging project based on the PC/104 embedded PC board [1]. The systems for image capture, manipulation and communication will be presented and power-consumption, heat dissipation and user-interface design will be considered. The paper will also discuss the results of an archaeological field trial and demonstrate the potential of image sequence tagging methods for efficient data retrieval in documentary applications. The compact, robust PC/104 system was originally designed for embedded systems applications but is fully compatible with standard PC systems. The use of a standard platform removes many compatibility problems enabling the use of standard software and hence simplifying the communication of information between users and, importantly, enabling cost-effective development and usage. An archaeological field trial: For archaeologists the goal is to determine as much as possible from a working site, unfortunately, this can only be achieved by destructive excavation. Documentation of the excavation is best achieved with photography, however, as with many documentary applications, one could usefully take thousands of photographs which then need to be carefully catalogued themselves. Our paper will discuss the results of a user field trial using a wearable PC/104 image capture system and demonstrates the potential of image sequence tagging methods for efficient data retrieval in documentary applications.