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IsoCam: Interactive Visual Exploration of Massive Cultural Heritage Models on Large Projection Setups

Fabio Marton, Marcos Balsa Rodriguez, Fabio Bettio, Marco Agus, Alberto Jaspe Villanueva, and Enrico Gobbetti

June 2014

Abstract

We introduce a novel user interface and system for exploring extremely detailed 3D models in a museum setting. 3D models and associated information are presented on a large projection surface controlled by a touch-enabled surface placed at a suitable distance in front of it. Our indirect user interface, dubbed IsoCam, combines an object-aware interactive camera controller with an interactive point-of-interest selector and is implemented within a scalable implementation based on multiresolution structures shared between the rendering and user interaction subsystems. The collision-free camera controller automatically supports the smooth transition from orbiting to proximal navigation, by exploiting a distance-field representation of the 3D object. The point-of-interest selector exploits a specialized view similarity computation to propose a few nearby easily reachable interesting 3D views from a large database, move the camera to the user-selected point of interest, and provide extra information through overlaid annotations of the target view. The capabilities of our approach have been demonstrated in a public event attended by thousands of people, which were offered the possibility to explore sub-millimetric reconstructions of 38 stone statues of the Mont'e Prama Nuragic complex, depicting larger-than-life human figures, and small models of prehistoric Nuraghe (cone-shaped stone towers). A follow-up of this work, using 2.5m-high projection screens, is now included in permanent exhibitions at two Archeological Museums. Results of a thorough user evaluation, involving quantitative and subjective measurements, are discussed.

Reference and download information

Fabio Marton, Marcos Balsa Rodriguez, Fabio Bettio, Marco Agus, Alberto Jaspe Villanueva, and Enrico Gobbetti. IsoCam: Interactive Visual Exploration of Massive Cultural Heritage Models on Large Projection Setups. ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH), 7(2): Article 12, June 2014.

Related multimedia productions

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Fabio Marton, Marcos Balsa Rodriguez, Fabio Bettio, Marco Agus, Alberto Jaspe Villanueva, and Enrico Gobbetti
IsoCam: Interactive Visual Exploration of Massive Cultural Heritage Models on Large Projection Setups.
CRS4 Video n. 171 - Date: June 2014
ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, 7(2): Article 12, June 2014

Bibtex citation record

@Article{Marton:2014:IIV,
    author = {Fabio Marton and Marcos {Balsa Rodriguez} and Fabio Bettio and Marco Agus and Alberto {Jaspe Villanueva} and Enrico Gobbetti},
    title = {{IsoCam}: Interactive Visual Exploration of Massive Cultural Heritage Models on Large Projection Setups},
    journal = {ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH)},
    volume = {7},
    number = {2},
    pages = {Article 12},
    month = {June},
    year = {2014},
    abstract = { We introduce a novel user interface and system for exploring extremely detailed 3D models in a museum setting. 3D models and associated information are presented on a large projection surface controlled by a touch-enabled surface placed at a suitable distance in front of it. Our indirect user interface, dubbed IsoCam, combines an object-aware interactive camera controller with an interactive point-of-interest selector and is implemented within a scalable implementation based on multiresolution structures shared between the rendering and user interaction subsystems. The collision-free camera controller automatically supports the smooth transition from orbiting to proximal navigation, by exploiting a distance-field representation of the 3D object. The point-of-interest selector exploits a specialized view similarity computation to propose a few nearby easily reachable interesting 3D views from a large database, move the camera to the user-selected point of interest, and provide extra information through overlaid annotations of the target view. The capabilities of our approach have been demonstrated in a public event attended by thousands of people, which were offered the possibility to explore sub-millimetric reconstructions of 38 stone statues of the Mont'e Prama Nuragic complex, depicting larger-than-life human figures, and small models of prehistoric Nuraghe (cone-shaped stone towers). A follow-up of this work, using 2.5m-high projection screens, is now included in permanent exhibitions at two Archeological Museums. Results of a thorough user evaluation, involving quantitative and subjective measurements, are discussed. },
    url = {http://vic.crs4.it/vic/cgi-bin/bib-page.cgi?id='Marton:2014:IIV'},
}