Inside out: Fusing 3D imaging modalities for the internal and external investigation of multi-material museum objects

Francien G. Bossema; Paul J.C. van Laar; Kimberly Meechan; Daniel O'Flynn; Joanne Dyer; Tristan van Leeuwen; Suzan Meijer; Erma Hermens; K. Joost Batenburg

doi:10.1016/j.daach.2023.e00296

Inside out: Fusing 3D imaging modalities for the internal and external investigation of multi-material museum objects

Francien G. Bossema^*, Paul J.C. van Laar, Kimberly Meechan, Daniel O'Flynn, Joanne Dyer, Tristan van Leeuwen, Suzan Meijer, Erma Hermens, K. Joost Batenburg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

3D imaging methods are increasingly employed in cultural heritage research to analyse and document objects in museum collections. In this work, we provide an interactive visualisation plugin for the open-source software Blender, to combine and inspect two complementary 3D imaging modalities: CT images, which capture the interior; and surface scans, which capture the exterior. 3D CT scan data can be visualised, both as volumetric representation and as orthogonal slices, and a 3D surface scan can be registered onto the CT data. It allows users to simultaneously and interactively inspect these modalities and to virtually cut through an object. It also provides tools for generating output images and videos for research and public outreach purposes. The plugin workflow was applied to four case studies from the collections of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the British Museum, London. The plugin is published open-source together with detailed guidelines and a practice dataset.

Original language	English
Article number	e00296
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Journal	Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage
Volume	31
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2023.e00296
Publication status	Published - Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Funding

The project was supported by a Small Project grant for the INTACT project from the Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science (NICAS). The project is part of the Impact4Art project, which is supported by NICAS and the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (project number 628.007.033). The FleX-ray Laboratory is supported by the Dutch Research Council, project number 639.073.506. F.G.B. was supported by Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Jo Kolk Studiefonds, Catherina van Tussenbroekfonds and European Women in Mathematics Association (EWM) to take up a research placement at the British Museum in London. F.G.B. is currently supported by the Migelien Gerritzen Fund/Rijksmuseum Fund on a Postdoctoral Fellowship. K.M. holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship supported by the Mellon Foundation.We would like to thank Marie Vandenbeusch (British Museum) and Danny Zborover (British Museum) for commenting on the article draft. We thank Willem Jan Palenstijn (CWI) and Alexander Skorikov (CWI) for assisting with code development, Max Kiss (CWI) for assisting with the CT scanning process of the Rijksmuseum objects and Ronald van Laar for providing sample objects for developing our software. We moreover thank Frans Pegt (Rijksmuseum) for assisting with the structured light scanning of the Rijksmuseum objects and Arlen Heginbotham (The J. Paul Getty Museum) for providing us with the image of the wooden block (Fig. 2a). The structured light scan of the Egyptian mummy mask was acquired by Amelia Knowlson, using equipment on loan from Sheffield Hallam University. The structured light scan of the jaguar figure was acquired by Claudio Mari (British Museum Department of Photography and Imaging). The Rijksmuseum object ‘bottle in the form of a shoe’, BK-KOG-1382 is on loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Gezelschap (KOG). The project was supported by a Small Project grant for the INTACT project from the Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science (NICAS). The project is part of the Impact4Art project , which is supported by NICAS and the Dutch Research Council ( NWO ) (project number 628.007.033). The FleX-ray Laboratory is supported by the Dutch Research Council, project number 639.073.506. F.G.B. was supported by Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Jo Kolk Studiefonds, Catherina van Tussenbroekfonds and European Women in Mathematics Association (EWM) to take up a research placement at the British Museum in London. F.G.B. is currently supported by the Migelien Gerritzen Fund/Rijksmuseum Fund on a Postdoctoral Fellowship. K.M. holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship supported by the Mellon Foundation .

Funders	Funder number
Amelia Knowlson
Marie Vandenbeusch
Migelien Gerritzen Fund/Rijksmuseum Fund
NICAS
Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science
Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds
Rijksmuseum objects and Arlen Heginbotham
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Sheffield Hallam University	BK-KOG-1382
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	628.007.033, 639.073.506

Keywords

3D imaging
Computed tomography
Cultural heritage
Data fusion
Structured light scanning
Visualisation

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Bossema, F. G., van Laar, P. J. C., Meechan, K., O'Flynn, D., Dyer, J., van Leeuwen, T., Meijer, S., Hermens, E., & Batenburg, K. J. (2023). Inside out: Fusing 3D imaging modalities for the internal and external investigation of multi-material museum objects. Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 31, 1-11. Article e00296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2023.e00296

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Bossema, FG, van Laar, PJC, Meechan, K, O'Flynn, D, Dyer, J, van Leeuwen, T, Meijer, S, Hermens, E & Batenburg, KJ 2023, 'Inside out: Fusing 3D imaging modalities for the internal and external investigation of multi-material museum objects', Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, vol. 31, e00296, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2023.e00296

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AU - Dyer, Joanne

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Inside out: Fusing 3D imaging modalities for the internal and external investigation of multi-material museum objects

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

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