The Smithsonian Institution digitizes its exhibits by sharing 3D models

The Smithsonian Institution has a huge number of exponates, something around 137 million. Of course, most of the exhibits are in the museum’s vaults, and the average visitor sees only the “tip of the iceberg”. Actually, this is a problem of many museums, and some of them are trying to solve the problem by digitizing their treasures (both literally and figuratively). Someone is photographing the exhibits, someone is scanning. And the Smithsonian Institution decided to digitize some of the exhibits in the form of 3D models.

At the same time, model files are available for download, and, if desired, they can be printed on a 3D printer. So far, the institute has just begun a great job of digitizing the exhibits, and 21 models of real objects have already fallen into the network. You can see what you have on this page . In order to properly view the model in the browser, you need a browser with WebGL support.
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If it is unclear what the model is, there are clues - the developers add them as explanations on the objects. Among other things, it is possible to change the lighting of the model, measure its size, and perform some other actions.

The digitization project itself started at the beginning of this year, and probably soon other exhibits will be posted on the site. To speed up the work, the management of the Smithsonian Institution plans to create a large 3D scanning laboratory that will be located in Washington.



Via theverge