Museum

VirtualBU - Museum

VirtualBU Museum Project was developed by Yusuf Ekin Güvençoğlu and Volkan Günal between September, 2010 and May, 2011, under the control of Prof. Richard Steflik, collaborating with the museum staff, namely Assistant Director Jackie Hogan and Registrar and Curator of Education Silvia Ivanova.

The museum project provides an online museum visiting service as part of Virtual BU Project with highly accurate virtual appearance for both the museum and the artworks. The more the artworks are reachable by public, the more they are well-known. Thus, the project provides good impression for Binghamton University’s art museum. The art museum was modeled with the Google's SketchUp 8 software using the actual blue-prints to pursue the most accurate measurements on the 3D model. VirtualBU Museum Project is the only project of VirtualBU in the context of indoor virtualization so far.

For the modelling of the art museum, Google SketchUp was an extremely reasonable tool to use and create a new 3D model of the museum with the buildings actual measurements and appearance both indoor and outdoor of the building, since it is a 3D software tool that combines a tool-set with an intelligent drawing system, which enables to place models using real-world coordinates. It also allows the model to have external objects, such as pictures, so that the model of the museum contains the artworks (paintings, pictures, photographs) properly.

Moreover, the Google SketchUp model of the museum is exported to the system called Open Wonderland, which is used for obtaining a complete model world of all of the VirtualBU's subprojects. Open Wonderland is a Java open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. One can extend the functionality to create entire new worlds, or new behaviors for objects client/server architecture supports the creation of a wide range of interactive, dynamic virtual worlds. During the modelling process, the models are put and tested in the Binghamton University's Open Wonderland system at the link: http://vbu.cs.binghamton.edu:8080/ . In the 3D Open Wonderland world, one can create an avatar, as a person who can walk and wander in the world, and view the models including Binghamton University Art Museum and the artworks it has.

2-dimensional artworks (paintings, pictures, photographs) were photographed and exported to the model individually. Furthermore, in Open Wonderland VirtualBU, one can click on the frame and get directed to link containing the full-size image of the artwork with more details, such as artist and artwork's information. Binghamton University Art Museum has also numerous numbers of 3-dimensional artworks such as sculpture, tiles, ceramics, vases et al... Therefore, vi3dim 3D-scanning method was used to scan 3D Real-world objects in order to be able to export them into the 3D world of the museum, which is explained elaborately below.

Binghamton University Art Museum

The museum is located in Fine Arts Building, Rooms 179 & 213. The museum has two combined floors in the first floor of the Fine Arts Building. Also, there is the permanent collection part of the museum in the base floor.

The mission of the Binghamton University Art Museum is to collect, preserve, present and document works of art from diverse cultures for the education, enrichment and entertainment of the campus community, the Greater Binghamton area, as well as the national and international art world. The museum has three main areas of operation: its permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, and educational outreach.

The University Art Museum -- an active, public art museum at Binghamton University -- educates, entertains and enriches the University and the community. A primary educational resource, the museum provides continuing opportunities for students and others to experience original works of art firsthand. Some 25,000 people annually attend one of the museum’s visiting exhibits or its permanent collection.

With more than 3,000 objects from all major periods of art history and most parts of the world, the museum’s permanent collection houses the most significant historical collections in the area. The collection includes paintings, sculpture, prints, photographs, drawings, glass, ceramic, metalwork, manuscript pages and textiles from Egypt, Greece, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and pre-Columbian cultures.

Modelling

Edges and Faces:

Every SketchUp model is made up of just two things: edges and faces. Edges are straight lines, and faces are the 2D shapes that are created when several edges form a flat loop. For example, a rectangular face is bound by four edges that are connected together at right angles. To build models in SketchUp, you draw edges and faces using a few simple tools that you can learn in a small amount of time. It's as simple as that.

Push/Pull: Quickly go from 2D to 3D

Extrude any flat surface into a three-dimensional form with SketchUp's patented Push/Pull tool. Just click to start extruding, move your mouse, and click again to stop. You can Push/Pull a rectangle into a box. Or draw the outline of a staircase and Push/Pull it into 3D. Want to make a window? Push/Pull a hole through your wall. SketchUp is known for being easy to use, and Push/Pull is the reason why.

Accurate measurements: Work with precision

SketchUp is great for working fast and loose in 3D, but it's more than just a fancy electronic pencil. Because you're working on a computer, everything you create in SketchUp has a precise dimension. When you're ready, you can build models that are as accurate as you need them to be. If you want, you can print scaled views of your model, and if you have SketchUp Pro, you can even export your geometry into other programs like AutoCAD and 3ds MAX.

Follow Me: Create complex extrusions and lathed forms

You use SketchUp's innovative, do-everything Follow Me tool to create 3D forms by extruding 2D surfaces along predetermined paths. Model a bent pipe by extruding a circle along an L-shaped line. Create a bottle by drawing half of its outline, then using Follow Me to sweep it around a circle. You can even use Follow Me to round off (fillet) edges on things like handrails, furniture and electronic gadgets.

Paint Bucket: Apply colors and textures

You can use SketchUp's Paint Bucket tool to paint your model with materials like colors and textures.

Groups and Components: Build smarter models

By "sticking together" parts of the geometry in your model to make Groups, you can create sub-objects that are easier to move, copy and hide. Components are a lot like Groups, but with a handy twist: copies of Components are related together, so changes you make to one are automatically reflected in all the others. Windows, doors, trees, chairs and millions of other things benefit from this behavior.

Shadows: Perform shade studies and add realism

SketchUp's powerful, real-time Shadow Engine lets you perform accurate shade studies on your models.

Sections: See inside your models

You can use SketchUp's interactive Sections feature to temporarily cut away parts of your design, enabling you to look inside. You can use Sections to create orthographic views (like floorplans), to export geometry to CAD programs using SketchUp Pro, or just to get a better view of your model while you're working on it. Section Planes can be moved, rotated and even animated using SketchUp's Scenes feature.

Scenes: Save views and create animations

We created Scenes to enable you to easily save precise views of your model so you can come back to them later. Need to create an animation? Just create a few Scenes and click a button.

Look Around and Walk: Explore your creations firsthand

SketchUp lets you get inside your model with a set of simple navigation tools designed to give you a first-person view. Click with Position Camera to "be standing" anywhere in your model. Use Look Around to turn your virtual head. Finally, switch to Walk to explore your creation on foot; you can even climb and descend stairs and ramps, just like you're playing a video game.

Dimensions and Labels: Add information to your designs

You can use the super-intuitive Dimension and Label tools to add dimensions, annotations and other glorious detail to your work.

The Instructor: Catch on quickly

SketchUp's Instructor dialog box, which you can choose to activate at any time, provides context-sensitive help.

Layers and the Outliner: Stay organized

When you're building a big, complicated model, things can get messy very quickly. SketchUp provides two useful ways to keep your geometry manageable:

Google Earth: See your models in context

SketchUp and Google Earth are part of the same product family, meaning you can exchange information between them easily. Need a building site for your project? Import a scaled aerial photograph, including topography, directly from Google Earth to SketchUp by clicking one button. Want to see your SketchUp model in context in Google Earth? Click another button, and you can. Anyone can use SketchUp to build models which can be seen by anyone in Google Earth.

Sandbox tools: Work on terrain

SketchUp's Sandbox tools let you create, optimize and alter 3D terrain. You can generate a smooth landscape from a set of imported contour lines, add berms and valleys for runoff, and create a building pad and driveway.

3D Warehouse: Find models of almost anything you need

The Google 3D Warehouse is a huge, online repository of 3D models which you can search through when you need something. Why build something when you can download it for free?

Import 3DS: Get a head start on your modeling

You can import 3DS files directly into your SketchUp models. Have a piece of furniture in 3DS format that you'd like to use? Import it in, then keep on truckin'.

Import images: Paint walls with photos

With SketchUp, you can import image files like JPGs, TIFFs, PNGs and PDFs. You can use them by themselves (kind of like posters), but you can also stick them to surfaces to create photo-realistic models of buildings, package designs, and more.

Export TIFF, JPEG and PNG

SketchUp lets you export raster images up to 10,000 pixels square, so generating an image which you can send in an email, publish in a document, or project on a wall is as easy as choosing a few options and clicking Export.

3D Scanner

A 3D scanner is a device that analyzes a real-world object or environment to collect data on its shape and possibly its appearance (i.e. color). The collected data can then be used to construct digital, three dimensional modelsuseful for a wide variety of applications. These devices are used extensively by the entertainment industry in the production of movies and video games. Other common applications of this technology include industrial design, orthotics and prosthetics, reverse engineeringand prototyping, quality control/inspection and documentation of cultural artifacts. Many different technologies can be used to build these 3D scanning devices; each technology comes with its own limitations, advantages and costs. It should be remembered that many limitations in the kind of objects that can be digitized are still present: for example optical technologies encounter many difficulties with shiny, mirroring or transparent objects. There are however methods for scanning shiny objects, such as covering them with a thin layer of white powder that will help more light photons to reflect back to the scanner. Laser scanners can send trillions of light photons toward an object and only receive a small percentage of those photons back via the optics that they use. The reflectivity of an object is based upon the object's color or terrestrial albedo. A white surface will reflect lots of light and a black surface will reflect only a small amount of light. Transparent objects such as glass will only refract the light and give false three dimensional information.

Functionality

The purpose of a 3D scanner is usually to create a point cloudof geometric samples on the surface of the subject. These points can then be used to extrapolate the shape of the subject (a process called reconstruction). If color information is collected at each point, then the colors on the surface of the subject can also be determined.

3D scanners are very analogous to cameras. Like cameras, they have a cone-like field of view, and like cameras, they can only collect information about surfaces that are not obscured. While a camera collects color information about surfaces within its field of view, 3D scanners collect distance information about surfaces within its field of view. The “picture” produced by a 3D scanner describes the distance to a surface at each point in the picture. If a spherical coordinate systemis defined in which the scanner is the origin and the vector out from the front of the scanner is φ=0 and θ=0, then each point in the picture is associated with a φ and θ. Together with distance, which corresponds to the r component, these spherical coordinates fully describe the three dimensional position of each point in the picture, in a local coordinate system relative to the scanner.

For most situations, a single scan will not produce a complete model of the subject. Multiple scans, even hundreds, from many different directions are usually required to obtain information about all sides of the subject. These scans have to be brought in a common reference system, a process that is usually calledalignment or registration, and then merged to create a complete model. This whole process, going from the single range map to the whole model, is usually known as the 3D scanning pipeline.

Technology

There are a variety of technologies for digitally acquiring the shape of a 3D object. A well established classification[2] divides them into two types: contact and non-contact 3D scanners. Non-contact 3D scanners can be further divided into two main categories, active scanners and passive scanners. There are a variety of technologies that fall under each of these categories.

Contact

Contact 3D scanners probe the subject through physical touch. A CMM (coordinate measuring machine) is an example of a contact 3D scanner. It is used mostly in manufacturing and can be very precise. The disadvantage of CMMs though, is that it requires contact with the object being scanned. Thus, the act of scanning the object might modify or damage it. This fact is very significant when scanning delicate or valuable objects such as historical artifacts. The other disadvantage of CMMs is that they are relatively slow compared to the other scanning methods. Physically moving the arm that the probe is mounted on can be very slow and the fastest CMMs can only operate on a few hundred hertz. In contrast, an optical system like a laser scanner can operate from 10 to 500 kHz. Other examples are the hand driven touch probes used to digitize clay models in computer animation industry.

3D Scanner Tutorial (for future work)

Create 3d object

1.Vi3Dim software. 2.Web-camera. 3.Check-Board printed on A4 page. 4.Light. 5.Source object.

Algorithm

1) Place desired object in the middle of the check board.

2) Place web camera in the right *spot.

• spot:

1.Proximally 30°-45° to axis X
2. whole check-board must be seen on  the  Vi3Dim software screen.

3) Put your hand on the edge of the check- board (try to not cover many of the black squares with the hand).

4) Press start capture button and begin to rotate the check-board slightly such way that the desired object will spin around his center and will move by axis X/Y as less as possible.

Scan

Scan If everything is ok you will see the yellow squares (indicators) on the black squares edges intersection and they moving with the check-board on the Vi3dim software screen.

If the yellow squares indicators loses there right spot that mean:

1.You spin the check-board to fast. 2.The camera is not in the right spot. 3.You already have all views from this angle(approximately 6).

________________________________________

Solutions:

1.Try to spin the check-board slowly. 2.Try to find other spot for the camera. 3.Continue to rotate check-board.

• maybe more/less light required.

Google Picasa Web Albums

Two things to know

The Picasa software provides a simple way to view, edit, and organize the photos on your computer. As you get started, there are two things you should always remember:

Picasa does not store the photos on your computer.

When you open Picasa, it simply looks at the folders on your computer and displays the photos it finds. It displays the file types that you tell it to find, in the folders that you tell it to search.

Your original photos are always preserved.

When using editing tools in Picasa, your original files are never touched. The photo edits you make are only viewable in Picasa until you decide to save your changes. Even then, Picasa creates a new version of the photo with your edits applied, leaving the original file totally preserved.

Add your photos

Use Picasa to view photos already on your computer, or to import photos from your camera.

Add photos already on your computer

Once you've downloaded and installed Picasa, you have total control over the photos that Picasa displays. Picasa shows you the photo and video file types that you tell it to find, in the folders that you tell it to search.

Import new photos

Of course, not all your photos reside on your computer. You can import photos into Picasa from many sources, including cameras, CDs, memory cards, scanners, webcams, and more. Photos you import are saved on your computer and displayed automatically in Picasa.

Organize your photos

The folder list on the left is the hub for Picasa organization. By scrolling through this list, you can access all photos displayed by Picasa. To understand Picasa organization, you need to understand the following three collections:

Folders

Folders in Picasa represent the folders on your computer. You control the folders that are scanned and displayed by Picasa. Changes you make to folders in Picasa affect the corresponding folders on your computer's hard drive. For example, if you delete a photo in a Picasa folder, that photo is also deleted from the computer.

Albums

Unlike folders, albums exist only in Picasa. Albums allow you to create virtual groups of photos taken from multiple folders on your computer. Albums display those photos without actually moving the photo -- it's like a playlist for photos. When you delete or move photos from an album, the original files remain in their original folders on your computer.

People

In this collection, you can organize your photos by what frequently matters most -- the people in them. Picasa uses facial recognition technology to find and group similar faces together across your entire collection of photos. By adding name tags to these groups of faces, new people albums are created. These people albums are just like the albums above: when you move or delete faces, the original files stay put.

Future Plans

During the last meeting on May 19, 2011 with the museum staff, the future expectations are discussed besides the demonstration. The Museum Staff has several expectations from the VirtualBU Museum Project in the future. First of all, the museum has an ongoing long-term project on photographing each of the artworks high-resolution, which is not completed yet. The museum staff aims to combine this project with the VirtualBU Museum project, to provide the most actual appearance in a highly detailed way in VirtualBU, including the artworks' information (such as artist, technique used, year etc...). Moreover, the museum staff has concerns about the copyrights of the artworks. Therefore, the artworks shown in VirtualBU environment should contain a solution for this issue in the future. Watermarking of the images should be a proper approach for this. Finally, depending on the museum's availability and its policy, the VirtualBU Museum Project may include more scanned 3D-artwork objects.

Contact

Project Designers:

Yusuf Ekin Güvençoğlu, yguvenc1[at]binghamton[dot]edu

Volkan Günal, vgunal1[at]binghamton[dot]edu

Project Manager:

Prof. Richard Steflik, steflik[at]binghamton[dot]edu

Museum Staff:

Jackie Hogan, hogan[at]binghamton[dot]edu

Silvia Ivanova, ivanova[at]binghamton[dot]edu

References

- http://openwonderland.org/

- http://www.vi3dim.com/

- http://picasa.google.com/

- http://sketchup.google.com/

- http://www.binghamton.edu/art-museum/

Files

Museum Sketchup Model http://www.mediafire.com/?c2il94qr7pn3tvc

BluePrints http://www.mediafire.com/?0xcj74qgj479g0i