Three-dimensional Modeling and Surface Characterization in Anthropology
Researchers and students in the Evolutionary Anthropology Laboratories study objects across a range of size scales and material types, from phytoliths to landscapes, from stone tools to mammal joints. In all cases, we face two difficult and often intractable problems: effective visualization and accurate characterization of three dimensional surfaces. But, recent advances in virtual reality technologies have opened new possibilities for characterizing and visualizing the surfaces and objects we study. The Evolutionary Anthropology Laboratories are focusing on three different three dimensional modeling techniques.
With grants from the College of Liberal Arts’ Plant Fund and the InfoTech Fees Committee in CLA’s Office of Information Technology, as well as support from the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Geology, the Evolutionary Anthropology Laboratories currently house equipment for Laser and Contact Scanning, Structured Light Photogrammetry, and Virtual Reality Presentations.
We actively seek collaborations to share resources and develop new projects. Please contact John Soderberg for more information.
Laser and Contact Scanning
We have two scanners that map the surface of objects. One uses a laser and has a resolution of 0.2 mm. The other uses a contact probe and has a resolution of 0.05 mm.
Current projects include three dimensional analysis of cut marks, stone tools, primate crania, and mammalian joint systems (in collaboration with Dr. David Fox in the Department of Geology, University of Minnesota). In the spring of 2005, Hayley Jirasek completed a senior project on three-dimensional characterization of ceramic vessels.
Structured Light Photogrammetry
This modeling technique uses the deformation of a light pattern projected onto an object to extract three dimensional data from two dimensional photographs. Our current technique uses a grid of circular dots projected from a 35mm slide projector. The object is photographed from several and software is used to extract shape data.
Virtual Reality Presentations
EAL houses two suites of equipment for creating virtual reality presentations. Both assemble two dimensional photographs into three dimensional ‘movies.’ The movies play in a QuickTime viewer. We can create both panoramic and object movies. Our equipment includes two rigs that move cameras and objects at fixed intervals, a 12 megapixel SLR camera, and a strobe lighting system.
With funding from the InfoTech Fees Committee’s Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) grants, Drs. Laden, Soderberg, Tappen, and Tostevin have begun a major initiative to create a variety of three-dimensional teaching resources that will be available for instructors to use in class and for students to use via the internet. Sabrina Curran is the graduate Research Assistant in charge of TEL projects. Hayley Jirasek and Elizabeth Noel are our undergraduate Research Assistants. We are producing single-row movies that spin in a single plane, multi-row movies that spin spherically, and nodal movies that allow users to spin a multi-component object and select individual components for individual viewing.
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Last modified on 9/15/07. For comments on the web site, contact John Soderberg