In terms of devices, it is not easy to understand what will be the next standard in archaeology.
So far the focus of this research field was mostly based on the data capturing and post processing, but very few affords were made to explore the possibility to use these new kinds of data in different scenarios (not just in Lab).
Today new technology allows to generate very precise 3D models of any archaeological context, perfect replicas of how the layer looked like the exact moment before its destruction. If stored properly, these information, can provide a sort of time travel application to keep track of all the actions (physical and mental) that defined the research process during the entire investigation time frame.
The use of these new devices (easy to carry everywhere, quite robust and with no keyboard) allows a direct access to our ongoing work directly into the excavation, bringing more and more the labs activities into the archaeological context. This represents an important step in terms of "information & cognition", because allows to hypothesize scenarios where field activities and post processing work are merge together in the same context.
Recently the National Research Council of Italy, ISTI (Institute of information Science of Pisa)
http://www.isti.cnr.it/ , realized a prototype to visualize complex 3D models through IPad, this application is called MeshPad, and it is basically an IPad version of MeshLab. These new tools for Pads (IPad, Galaxy), also if incomplete and not designed primarily for archaeological research (as usual...), represent an incredible opportunity for new experiments based on data management, and opens to new interesting research questions about how our perception of the data affect (increase or decrease) our capacity to interpret.
