Demystifying Gaussian Splatting for Archaeology and Museums | CAA Australasia Seminar
Description
CAA Australasia Digital Archaeology Panel Series
Join us for a discussion of hot topics in Gaussian splatting!
In the last two years, 3D Gaussian splatting has gone from a SIGGRAPH curiosity to a tool turning up in heritage workflows everywhere — often without a clear sense of what it actually is, what it’s for, or where it falls short. This 1.5-hour seminar offers a practical, evidence-based grounding for archaeologists, museum professionals and students who want to understand the technique without the marketing.
We’ll work through hands-on case studies at both site and object scale, examine the end-to-end capture and processing pipeline across the major tools, and look honestly at why splatting is not a replacement for photogrammetry — but is genuinely transformative for certain capture problems, public engagement, and the reprocessing of legacy datasets. The session includes a guest case study on rock art recording in Australia and finishes with practical guidance on dual-purpose capture: how to shoot once and produce both a photogrammetric record and a splat from the same dataset.
Indicative Program
Opening
Case Studies (Sites & Objects)
Rock Art Case Study (Calum)
End-to-End Process
Doesn’t Replace Photogrammetry
Dual-Purpose Capture
Legacy Data Reprocessing
Q&A
This seminar will run for approximately 1.5 hours, and guests are welcome to join at any time.
CAA Australasia's events are free and open to the public. Attendees agree to abide the by the CAA International's social media policy.
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Lineup
Michael Rampe
Michael Rampe is a professional photogrammetrist working across archaeology and the GLAM sector. He runs Rampe Realistic Imaging and is Co-Founder and CEO of Pedestal 3D, the browser-based 3D platform used by museums and universities internationally. With a background spanning photography, software development, education and 3D media, his work includes projects with most of the leading GLAM organisations, private archaeology firms, councils, schools and universities, among others. He has been running deep practical experiments on Gaussian splatting for site and object capture, and on reprocessing legacy photogrammetric datasets.
Dr Calum Fararr
Calum Farrar is a digital archaeologist who uses digital approaches to rock art and Indigenous cultural heritage. His recent work includes co-authored publications in Scientific Reports on machine learning approaches to finger flutings, and on virtual representations of significant bark painting collections. For this session he brings the perspective of a practitioner exploring Gaussian splatting on Australian rock art sites for the first time.
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