Museum Captures the Past
Project: Capture museum relics in 3D
Objective: Create a virtual museum for the web
Developer: Lars Goran Spang/Murberget Museum
Project Summary
Swedish museum Murberget has an extensive collection of artifacts – so many in fact that it cannot display them all within the confines of its physical building. Head of Research for Murberget, Lars Goran Spang, thought what they needed was a way to make the museum “virtual” – after all, there’s no limit to the room available on the web.
The Challenge
The question that Lars faced was how to create this virtual museum in a way that brought the real sense of history to these objects. He felt photographs alone wouldn’t do.
The Solution
Foto 3D allows the easy capture of real world objects using a simple digital camera. When Lars found out about this unique technology from developer Creative Dimension Software he knew he had his solution.
The Approach
“The web visitors will have access to our databases and direct links to other databases, with an interface as simple as possible…” Lars explained. These 3D models “…will be used in our virtual museum, where a new item is presented in 3D each month. The modeling of artifacts can in some cases be done in half an hour, which is important if modeling is to be a regular routine.”
The Process
Lars was able to set up a small studio area in which to photograph the museum artifacts. A simple turntable with the printed Foto 3D orientation template was created. Additional lighting was added to properly illuminate the object.
Finished photographs are then downloaded to a PC and fed into the software to build the 3D models. A combination of both photographs and 3D models are used for the website. 3D models are displayed using a Java based player technology similar to Strata Live 3D
The Results
The results speak for themselves. All of the images below are 3D models from the virtual museum. The artifacts are now ‘preserved’ in the digital domain for future generations to enjoy.
