Building Virtual Museum Exhibitions

1. Building Virtual Museum Exhibitions Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

2. ARCO Project Partners The University of Sussex (UK) The Sussex Archaeological Society (UK) The Poznan University of Economics (Poland) Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique (France) Giunti Gruppo Editoriale (Italy) University of Bath (UK) Victoria and Albert Museum (UK) Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

3. ARCO-Team @ Museum Association Conference, Brighton ARCO team on Stand 70 Martin White (UoS)—ARCO Project Manager Krzysztof Walczak (PUE)—Database and Content Management Manjula Patel (UKOLN)—Heritage Metadata Patrick Sayd (CEA-LIST)—Digitisation Rafal Wojciechowski (PUE, UoS)—Virtual and Augmented Reality Miroslaw Stawniak (PUE)—Database and Content Management John Manley (Sussex Past)—Small Museum Perspective James Stevenson (VAM)—Large Museum Perspective Fabrizio Giorgini (GIUNTI)—Business Models Nicholaos Mourkoussis (UoS)—Metadata and XML Schemas Joe Darcy (UoS)—3D Modelling of Museum Artefacts Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

4. Presentation Outline • ARCO Project Introduction – Martin White (UoS) • Tools for building virtual museum exhibitions • ARCO Technology Overview – Manjula Patel (UKOLN) • Creating and Manipulating 3D Models • Managing Cultural Object Database • Presentation of Cultural Objects using Virtual and Augmented Reality • Benefits for Small Museums – John Manley (SussexPast) • Benefits for Large Museums – James Stevenson (VAM) Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

5. ARCO Background • ARCO started in October 2001 as a three year RTD project • 1 year left to run, on schedule to finish September 2004 • Seven partners including two museum pilot sites from 4 European countries • United Kingdom, France, Poland, Italy • Co-funded by the EC under the 5FP (IST) • Total investment is 2.8M Euro. 2.0M Euro from the EC Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

6. ARCO Status • Progress so far: • 4 prototype systems and components completed, various configurations demonstrated at: • COMDEX Fall 2002, Las Vegas • EVA 2003 Florence and London • Example 4th prototype components are exhibiting on stand 70 • Two Museum User Trials, third in October at Sussex Past • Large dissemination activity: • Vision, Video and Graphics, UK • Visualisation, Imaging and Image Processing, Spain • Dublin Core, USA • Immediate Future Developments: • Final 12 months of project for more detailed system integration, assessment and evaluation, dissemination activities • Technology Implementation Plan Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

7. ARCO Technology Overview • ARCO Project goals • Prototype systems and components • Digitisation of artefacts • 3D modelling and refinement • Storing and managing digitised objects • ARCO data model • Metadata in ARCO • Visualisation of digitised artefacts • Manjula Patel (UKOLN, University of Bath) Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

8. Goals of the ARCO Project • Develop innovative technology and expertise to help museums Create, Manipulate, Manage and Presentcultural objects in virtual exhibitions both within museums and over the Web • Why? • To allow museums to have an online (3D) presence • To enable interaction with digital representations of collections • How? By building a set of tools and processes from digitisation to visualisation: • Digital capture of artefacts, 3D modelling and refinement, Database and content management, Visualisation in virtual or augmented reality environments • Interoperability i.e. an Open Architecture • XML Data Exchange between tools and other systems • Internet, Web, graphics and metadata standards Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

9. ARCO Prototype Systems and Components Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

10. Create: Digitise Artefacts with the Object Modeller • Method of modelling depends on features of the objects • Objects with simple geometryare modelled with modified 3ds max or Maya • For complex models we use a custom built stereo digital camera system: • Object geometry and textures are extracted from sequences of stereo pictures and merged to produce a 3D textured model • Portable in order to gain access to fragile artefacts • Ease of use for museum staff who are not experts in 3D measurement • Result should be an accurate 3D model of the artefact in terms of shape, texture and resolution • Automated stereo reconstruction as far as possible Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

11. Manipulate: 3D Modelling and Refinement • A tool for interactive model refinement and rendering • Creation of simple models and refinement of digitised models • smoothing the object geometry • reducing polygon count for Internet based rendering • re-applying lighting • repairing missing parts • Database connectivity • search and browse objects • import and export models • (including models generated by • other methods, • e.g. Mechanical scanning, • Laser scanning) Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

12. Media Objects fromCreation & Manipulation Stages • Sample media objects representing cultural objects in the database: • Images from the photogrammetry process • VRML models exported from model refinement Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

13. Manage: Content Management Application • All ARCO data is stored in a database for consistency • Museums do not manage the database directly, but through a Content Management Application (ACMA) • ACMA provides several managers for ease of data manipulation, e.g. • Cultural objects • X-VRML templates • Virtual exhibitions Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

14. ARCO Data Model Cultural Object: descriptive curatorial metadata, surrogate for the physical artefact Acquired Object: digital representation of the physical artefact Refined Object: acquired (or refined) object which has been modified Media Object: individual object which makes up a digital representation (3D model, texture maps, description etc.) Cultural Object <<subclass>> <<subclass>> Acquired Object Refined Object <<refines>> <<refines>> +contains +contains +belongs to +belongs to Media Object +includes +is included Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

15. Interoperability: Metadata for Digital Artefacts • AMS –ARCO Metadata Schema, is a vocabulary for describing processes from digitisation to visualisation: • Resource discovery metadata (DCMES) • Descriptive curatorial metadata (mda SPECTRUM) • Technical metadata (preservation) • Themed metadata (intelligence, effort report) • ARCO specific elements • Interoperability • Data exchange between ARCO components • Cross domain and compatibility with museum best practice • Implemented with XML Schemas AMS Metadata Editor Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

16. Presentation: Augmented Reality Interfaces • Visualisation of ARCO media objects from the database • VRML models, metadata, images, virtual exhibitions • Three visualisation interfaces, same database contents • Remote Web Interface (search, browse) • Local Museum touch-screen (search, browse) • Local Augmented Reality environment (interact) Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

17. Virtual Museum Exhibitions and Galleries Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

18. Benefits for Small MuseumsSussex Archaeology SocietySix regional museums in Sussexwith some 500,000 objectsJohn Manley (Sussex Past) Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

19. Small Museum Attributes • Some attributes of small museums… • They are in the majority • Often no dedicated ICT staff • Very often no professional photographic skills • They are not well-funded • But they are cherished, rooted in their localities, and aspire to do their best • They strive to achieve national standards Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

20. Incarcerating Objects • The small museum as a prison … • Objects in them once had real lives and, for example, were meant to be handled, or worn, or drunk from, or contained something, or displayed on walls etc, often in the immediate locality • We remove them from those local contexts and then lock them in glass display cases • We can no longer explore their physicality in the round • And then the museum curator tells us what’s important about the object Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

21. Liberating Objects • ARCO system as liberator … • ARCO can display, remotely or in-gallery, objects in the round • Can link objects with other objects and local places where they were found • Offers different visual perspectives of an object which can provoke novel opinions from the viewer, avoiding reliance on the curator • Enhances the sensual experience of the physicality of real objects Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

22. ARCO Benefits for Small Museums • ARCO and small museums… • ARCO provides interactivity, and intelligent, non-passive artefacts • Liberates them from the glass case and curators’ labels • Decreases the psychological distance between object and viewer • Moves a step closer to allowing objects to be experienced as real things, once used by local people in their own localities Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

23. Benefits for Large Museums Victoria and Albert MuseumA large national museum with some 4 million objects James Stevenson (VAM) Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

24. Object base Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

25. Why we make images • Publications • Catalogues • Collections management • Web site • Education • In the museum • On the web Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

26. Education • DCMS targets and objectives • All funding bodies have similar targets • Improve access • Social inclusion Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

27. How do you describe an object? • Words, text • Objects are 3D • They have a front and back • Top and bottom • They have mass and volume Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

28. Photographer: Pip Barnard Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

29. Photographer: Pip Barnard Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

30. Photographer: Pip Barnard Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

31. How we are doing this? • Quick time movies • Large volume of content on the web site • Panoramas of galleries • Virtual spaces Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

32. What 3D models can do • Add new ways of seeing • Give a greater degree of spatial awareness • Allow comparison of volume and mass • Be placed in virtual spaces • Help create the virtual museum Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

33. Issues • Difficult to achieve • Expensive • Complex • New set of skills • Studio or workshop restricted Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

34. Tools • Easy to use • Very simple software • Content management • Link to museums collections management • Simple model refinement • Simple insertion into web pages and virtual galleries Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

35. Museum User Roles • Create test situations • Access to museum content • Test developments by technical partners • Evaluate results • Encourage use by other museums Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

36. Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003

37. Conclusions • ARCO is developing an open architecture that integratesstate-of-the-art with ARCO specific technologies to enable museums to build virtual exhibitions • Digitisation and modelling of 3D museum artefacts (OM) • Refinement and creation of the 3D virtual museum artefacts (MR) • Object relational database and content management (ACMA) • Visualisation of museum exhibits in virtual environments (ARIF) • Integrated through XML technologies (X-VRML, AMS, XDE) • ARCO tools are end user driven through museum pilot sites being closely integrated into the design process • Visit us at the ARCO website: • http://www.arco-web.org/ • Stand 70 Museum Association Conference – Brighton – 6-7th October 2003