Service
If you have questions about any of the topics, need advice or assistance with a research project or a grant application, please feel free to contact us.
Advice
We are happy to advise you on the use of digital tools and methods in research projects in the humanities. In addition to the selection of suitable tools, this also includes questions of research data management.
Solution-oriented consulting on planned digital data acquisition and analysis in ongoing research projects.
Consulting during the planning phase of research projects. Discussion of ideas for incorporating digital solution approaches into humanities project proposals.
Consulting on the long-term and sustainable management of your research data during and after the project phase in close cooperation with the Research Data Service Center.
Support
BCDH provides direct support in the application of a broad portfolio of digital methods and tools in a wide variety of research projects.
BCDH has extensive expertise in non-destructive and sustainable digital documentation of material cultural heritage using innovative methods of 3D acquisition and remote sensing.
Examples:
Integration of existing programs or application of different data acquisition devices to solve research questions.
Code adaptation of existing databases or integration into open-source software for different programming languages.
Example:
Integration of generated 3D spaces in teaching and research projects.
Example:
- use of 3D spaces from the project Virtual Collaboration (ViCo)
Cooperation
Services for which additional scientific staff for long term involvement is required.
Competence Building
in methodological and technical issues of the Digital HumanitiesUpon request, BCDH can organize introductions to specific software or applications of databases within its capabilities.
Upon request, BCDH can organize method-oriented workshops on the use of specific software, various recording devices, or the construction of data infrastructure, within the limits of its possibilities.
On a regular basis, BCDH offers courses for students (and university staff) to introduce them to geoinformation systems, remote sensing methods, or THE use of databases.
Artificial Intelligence
At the latest with the launch of ChatGTP at the end of 2022, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has reached the general public. Each new application fires up the discussion as to whether AI serves or harms society. In any case, artificial intelligence in its various facets will soon be indispensable in research, and thus also in university teaching in the humanities. In the collaborative projects it supervises, the BCDH uses special AI-supported, and whenever possible open source, applications based on machine learning as well as deep learning algorithms to address various scientific questions:
- Optical character recognition in images and maps (OCR), e.g. Recogito, (https://recogito.pelagios.org/), Adobe Acrobat
- Handwriting recognition, e.g. Transkribus (http://app.transkribus.eu)
- Pattern recognition-in remote sensing data: e.g., in cooperatively supervised theses with computer science for archaeological interpretation of LiDAR data.
In some cases, introductions to various software are already included in our course offerings. In addition, we can support you in familiarizing yourself with various software applications for your own use.
Want to learn more about artificial intelligence? The University of Helsinki, together with MinnaLearn, has created a didactically well prepared free online course where you can learn the basics of artificial intelligence at your own pace. Click here for the Elements of AI course.
Software
The software developed and provided by BCDH is made available under free licenses in our GitHub repository.
multispectral - R-Script for the derivation of vegetation indices from aerial photographs (needs update, 19/09/2023)
Based on the RStoolbox-Paket Multispectral enables the automatic derivation of vegetation indices from multispectral aerial photographs.
Spacialist - a virtual research environment for the Spatial Humanities
Together with the Digital Humanties Center (formerly eScience-Center) at the University of Tübingen, BCDH operates the open source tool Spacialist, which allows researchers in the spatial and object-based sciences to standardize the acquisition and analysis of all research data in an integrated and harmonized environment. The tool is continuously developed and adapted to the requirements of heterogeneous research projects. If you are interested in developing a project, please feel free to contact us.
Geotif Compressor
This code converts a GeoTif in rgb format to about 5% of its original size by combining gdal raster programs. The original ground sampling distance is preserved. However, due to lossy jpeg compression, blurred image edges may occur. All metadata information is transferred. Image pyramids can be created and stored internally in the image. The original file is not overwritten unless explicitly defined.
ThesauRex Docker
ThesauRex is a SKOS editor developed by the Digital Humanities Center (formerly eScience-Center) at the University of Tübingen. The current version can be found at https://github.com/DH-Center-Tuebingen/ThesauRe.