Professor Peter Cobb (Hong Kong University) visits ISAW to discuss Augmented and Mixed Reality in Archaeological Fieldwork

On Wednesday, Nov. 13th, 2024, ISAW faculty member Sebastian Heath hosted a conversation between the ISAW community and Professor Peter Cobb of Hong Kong University. Professor Cobb is a prehistorian and director of the Ararat Plain Southeast Archaeological Project (APSAP), which is conducted in collaboration with the Armenian Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. He is also an internationally recognized expert in the application of digital technologies to fieldwork and teaching. 

During the hour-long event in the Seminar Room at ISAW, Professor Cobb first presented his experiments in using Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) headsets during the 2023 APSAP field season. That work was recently published in the open-access article “Experiments with Mixed and Augmented Reality (MR/AR) for Archaeological Data Collection and Use During Fieldwork: Vision for the Future” (Cobb, Peter J., and Hayk Azizbekyan (2024). Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 7 (1). https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.140). The three headsets tested were Vuzix Blade 2, the Microsoft Hololens 2, and the Meta Quest Pro. As described in the article and further explored by Professor Cobb during his visit, APSAP has been able to deploy the headsets as part of data collection during excavation and to experiment with the rendering of 3D models directly in the context of the project's trenches,  guide excavation itself, and  experiment with the digital restoration and manipulation of ceramics.

At this moment in time, the three devices are not perfect; they do, nonetheless, allow the future not only to be explored but to be defined. This was one aspect of the conversation that followed Professor Cobb's presentation. It is archaeologists – working in collaboration with other disciplines – who are going to apply these tools to archaeological fieldwork. Among the other themes addressed was cost and the need to share the software being developed to make these devices work in archaeological contexts. The conversation also ranged into questions about the relationship of new technology to archaeological methods and efficiency. For instance, will the widespread use of headsets and related devices mean that archaeologists should slow down and collect even more information for display in the context of excavated trenches, or will the efficiencies they afford mean that they can work more quickly? There was some sense that the answer was both; or rather, that these choices still flow from the nature of the archaeological work and the people making the decisions about how that work will proceed, not directly from the technology itself. In that regard, it was an important aspect of the conversation, since most of the members of the ISAW community who were in the room are actively engaged in ISAW-sponsored or other ongoing field projects from the Eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia. Ideas for additional uses of headsets as well as  other devices were considered and everyone benefited from seeing and talking about Professor Cobb's work. 

It is precisely to facilitate that sort of interdisciplinary conversation and exchange that ISAW exists. We are grateful for the time Peter took to visit ISAW and share his work with our active archaeological community.