Arizona State Musuem now has an interactive 3D exhibit installed with content created using 3DSOM Pro. The "Virtual Vault" project is a collaboration with the Center for Desert Archaeology, who have scanned portions of the museum's vessel collection using 3DSOM Pro. The models can be viewed interactively in 3D using 3DSOM's latest 3D publishing technology.

As well as creating the exhibit at the Arizona State Museum, the Virtual Vault will be made available over the internet and will feature a significant proprtion of the whole vessel collection in 3D.

"The Vault will go far beyond static electronic exhibit modules that depict a vessel and list its type and ware designation, description, dating, and funct - instead, it is being developed as a fully interactive, layered information resource." explains Doug Gann, Center Preservation Archaeologist and Digital Media Specialist on the cdarc website...

Recently the center upgraded to the latest version of 3DSOM Pro (2.1) to enable models to be quickly and cost-effectively scanned and published online using 3DSOM's plugin-free Flash 3D viewer.

Click to view an example 3D model created by the Center for Desert Archaeology using 3DSOM Pro.

3DSOM Pro, produced by Creative Dimension Software Ltd, is a high-end tool for automatically generating 3D models from photos of an object. The object is placed on a special calibration target with a backdrop and a number of photos taken from different directions. A fully textured 3D model is created with the majority of the process being fully automatic.