Taylor Bennett
Taylor Bennett is a doctoral student in Archaeological Science, applying digital imaging technologies to the study of cultural heritage. His thesis is focused on the application of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and 3D photogrammetry to the epigraphy of a collection of over 400 Roman stylus writing tablets that were discovered in 2010-14 during excavations for the Bloomberg LP headquarters in London, UK. The stylus tablets date from the first Roman settlement in Londinium (43 to c. 80 AD) and comprise the oldest handwritten documents found in the UK. Mr Bennett's other research interests include using spectral imaging and computational imaging to study oil-on-canvas paintings, wall murals, monuments, prehistoric petroglyphs, and other cultural objects, with an emphasis on data integration to help interpret the materials and methods of their creation. Digital technologies are increasingly used to better understand the materials and methods of cultural objects. However, these technologies generate very large data sets of thousands of high-resolution images and spatial information that require new methods of integration and correlation. Immersive technologies (3D, AR, and VR) have the potential to help render these large data sets in an accurate spatial framework, making them more accessible for research.
