Isee Method
Browsing in the irtual useum of the arcophagi in the Basilica of St. Silvestro at the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome
Laura Pecchioli
Seminar for the Languages and Cultures of the Near East Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg Heidelberg, Germany E-mail: laura.pecchioli@gmx.de
Fawzi Mohamed
Department of Chemistry Humboldt University Berlin, Germany E-mail: fawzi@gmx.ch
Mirco Pucci
Dipartimento di Architettura, Disegno Storia e Progetto University of Florence Florence, Italy E-mail: mirco.pucci@gmail.com
Barbara Mazzei
Responsabile Settore Restauro, Musei e Archivi PCAS Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra Rome, Italy E-mail: bmazzei@arcsacra.va
Abstract—This paper outlines a program (ISEE) to visualise interactive 3D environments and access information through the Web. ISEE had been prototyped as content management tool with Internet Explorer since 2008 and currently supports the major browsers. Its database of information is stored in MySQL. The basic idea of the software is to enable information retrieval by simply looking inside a 3D environment, since moving and looking in the real world are basic interactions, which all viewers use. It ranks the relevant information by means of its position/orientation of the viewer in 3D space. The ranking algorithm that we developed matches the intuitive expectation of users as verified by means of formal usability tests. We present its application in the project in progress for the Museum of the sculpture in the Basilica of St. Silvestro at the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome, where the user will be able to retrieve information through the virtual visit and using QR-code in situ for each fragment of sarcophagi. An important aspect with internet usage is the optimisation of the 3D model. This has been achieved creating a low poly 3D mesh with the application of normal and displacement maps generated with a baking process of the high poly 3D model. In this way we have optimized for the Web and the interactive use.
Laura Pecchioli
Seminar for the Languages and Cultures of the Near East Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg Heidelberg, Germany E-mail: laura.pecchioli@gmx.de
Fawzi Mohamed
Department of Chemistry Humboldt University Berlin, Germany E-mail: fawzi@gmx.ch
Mirco Pucci
Dipartimento di Architettura, Disegno Storia e Progetto University of Florence Florence, Italy E-mail: mirco.pucci@gmail.com
Barbara Mazzei
Responsabile Settore Restauro, Musei e Archivi PCAS Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra Rome, Italy E-mail: bmazzei@arcsacra.va
Abstract—This paper outlines a program (ISEE) to visualise interactive 3D environments and access information through the Web. ISEE had been prototyped as content management tool with Internet Explorer since 2008 and currently supports the major browsers. Its database of information is stored in MySQL. The basic idea of the software is to enable information retrieval by simply looking inside a 3D environment, since moving and looking in the real world are basic interactions, which all viewers use. It ranks the relevant information by means of its position/orientation of the viewer in 3D space. The ranking algorithm that we developed matches the intuitive expectation of users as verified by means of formal usability tests. We present its application in the project in progress for the Museum of the sculpture in the Basilica of St. Silvestro at the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome, where the user will be able to retrieve information through the virtual visit and using QR-code in situ for each fragment of sarcophagi. An important aspect with internet usage is the optimisation of the 3D model. This has been achieved creating a low poly 3D mesh with the application of normal and displacement maps generated with a baking process of the high poly 3D model. In this way we have optimized for the Web and the interactive use.