Hi Jo, Hi The List -
Jo Hook at Monash University  asked the List for "a museum Web site that
uses holograms or 3D effects to view objects, perhaps creating new ways in
which to see the object that may not be possible at the physical museum?"
and Todd Happer directed her to California Science Center in L.A.  which
issues charming 3D glasses to view web images.

When I hear a request for 3D images…I take that to mean the ability to
"observe’ an object in all its dimensions: interactively  rotate it, get up
close, turn it over, get inside!  Many objects displayed in museums are
either too valuable, too delicate, or too cumbersome to allow this sort of
exploration. Yet true 3D modeling  offers this! Imagine being able to get so
close to a painting you can observe the brush hairs sticking in the paint?
Turn it over and see the mounting and canvas treatment?  Look inside a
casting, peel off the layers of a construction, …and never set off a single
alarm in the process?

The Getty Museum  http://www.getty.edu/museum/ uses kiosk rooms and a web
presence to display a large proportion of their collection…but has not yet
approached 3D representation of their objects. You can "zoom" an image to
observe closer detail, but cannot truly grab and rotate, invert, or crawl
inside.

3D technology has come a great distance in the last three  to five years,
well past the red and blue glasses ;-).   MRI-like  images can be used to
"decompose" an object, the resultant images furnishing an armature on which
the 3D modeling can take place. Surfaces of a collection item can be
captured in digitized image detail  that boggle the human mind. And all of
it made available at museum touch screen kiosks, or in streaming display, or
on a web. Jo, I am as anxious as you are to find a museum site that offers
the public such an intimate view of their collections.  In fact, I’d help
build it, given the opportunity! What a blast that would be…..

Beth Macdonald
Big Head Interactive
415/752.6511
www.bigheadinteractive.com

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