Spatial Heritage Review Issue #2, December 2023
This issue: documenting heritage during conflict, augmented reality experiments, virtual visits, events, publications, interactive games, + much, much more.
I hope you had a good winter break and are taking the return to reality well! Read on for a recap of the top cultural heritage and 3D related stories from December ‘23.
For my part, over the last month I’ve put together a tutorial on creating a simple 3D scene for AR viewing, penned a short love letter to gaussian splatting, and continued to curate weekly top 10 collections of cultural heritage 3D from Sketchfab.
I’ve also helped review submissions for the Rijksmuseum’s 2and3D conference as part of the conference's advisory committee - it looks like it’ll be a great line-up so if you can make it I definitely recommend considering attending.
Oh! I’ll also be in Washington DC at the end of the month for the IIIF 3D Interoperability Working Meeting, too - see you there?
As always, please do share your feedback and suggestions by leaving a comment on any post. Story suggestions and tips for next month are always welcome, just drop me a message at nebulousflynn@substack.com.
Main stories below, plenty more (seriously, LOADS) for you to browse in the the Issue #2 Store Room (including seasonal celebrations, new academic publications, 3D paintings, 3D printings, and numerous digitisation project updates).
Documenting Heritage During Conflict
Several projects crossed my timelines under this theme last month. Along with the sadness of it all, it struck me how much 3D documentation is being used to affect the perception of ongoing wars, as well as build the digital memory through which conflicts may be understood in the future.
The featured GIF above is captured from the Broken Cities online experience by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which aims to “Explore the hidden cost of urban conflict in photogrammetric 3D.”, specifically the cities of Aleppo, Mosul, and Gaza”. The scrollytelling format expertly combines text, images, audio, and 3D to tell the stories of the people living through the tragedy of war. Via Mahi Khanna by way of Chaitanya Krishnan and Mahesh Bhat.
Augmented Reality
AR prototyper Andy Agus visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York wearing a mixed-reality headset to demo an augmented reality experience “to enhance the museum-goers experience of learning about art”. Security informed him that he “needed approval to wear the headset in the museum” | video
4 more augmented reality stories
Virtual Visits
I’ve always preferred a well designed and performant website over ‘street view’ style experiences as a way to explore an exhibition or museum collection, but most types of virtual visit are generally interesting in their own way.
Here are some more ‘virtual visits’ in 3D that crossed my feed in December ‘23:
As part of the Museum in the Village project, “many experiences were brought from museums to villages and vice versa” via Gabriela da Rocha
Take a peep at this neat (but heavy) 3D scan of the dining room of Hauteville House, the house of French writer Victor Hugo by via Cyril PREISS
Interactive Games
Mission: Mars in Roblox by Museum of Science, Boston
Museum of Science, Boston enters the metaverse with new Roblox experience “Mission: Mars”
They seem to have done something right as the experience listing on roblox.com lists 3.2M+ plays and 16,000+ likes! If you scroll through the spam, the comments on the experience’s Group wall are generally positive, too. GG Museum of Science, Boston!
If you want a laugh, here’s a video of me trying out the first 15 mins of the experience in which you can watch me drive an overweight rover into a bottomless canyon, only to review my design and soar to victory! 🧑🚀🚀
Under Pressure
Under Pressure is a chill pressure washing simulator for VR by Antibore, the game dev branch of the Swiss VR/AR agency ateo. The team have implemented a cool new feature leveraging the Sketchfab API which lets you import free 3D models from that platform, and covers them in grime ready for you to clean off with your pressure washer.
I’ve not played myself yet, but here’s a promo video of someone pressure washing a Roman scutum shield. What a time to be alive!
2 more interactive games stories
Events
Recently happened:
IIIF 2023 Online Meeting, 5-7 December ‘23
Full 2023 Online Meeting | direct link to 3D group update presentation
XR4Heritage
Our History Pioneers Of Pan-Africanism Enter The Metaverse, 4-6 Dec ‘23
Event info | livestream recording (FR), via XR4Heritage.
Eureka 3D
Transforming Heritage From 2D to 3D digitisation, 1 December 2023 | Recording
Data Hub demo Event, 15 December 2023 | Recording.
Upcoming events:
Birmingham University
The Perception of Palaeontology & Volcanology in Video Games: A Primer for Science Communicators Monday, 15 January 2024 17:30-19:00 UTC | More info, via Lapworth Museum.
Japanese Archaeological Morphometrics Study Group
Let's create a pottery development diagram with CloudCompare (JP), Sunday 14 January 10:30 UTC | More info, via Atsushi Noguchi.
Imaging.org
Electronic Imaging 2024, January 21-25, 2024, Burlingame, CA, USA | More info.
Software & Hardware
There’s a new release of of the open source desktop photogrammetry software Meshroom | Download | Changelog
Polycam released its latest update.
Miscellaneous 3D Models
Photogrammetry scan of HMS Victory, part of the work by digitisation firm Visualskies for Ridley Scott’s film Napoleon | blog post | 3D scan on Nira | via Ian Failes