Latino Museum Studies Program

Are you a graduate student interested in 3D technology and engaged in the fields of Latino art, culture, and history? Apply for this great opportunity through the Smithsonian Latino Center to come work in our office this summer. The SLC will provide your accommodations, round-trip travel, and a modest stipend!

Visit latino.si.edu/education/lmsp and find the practicum titled "Telling Latino Stories through 3D Digitization"

America’s Presidents

The renovated #AmericasPresidents exhibit reopens today at @NPG.Smithsonian with some excellent new digital content! http://npg.si.edu/exhibition/americas-presidents-reopens

After 18 months of planning and extensive renovations, “America’s Presidents”—the National Portrait Gallery’s “must see” exhibition—reopens to the public Sept. 22. As part of the reopening, a selection of sculptures from the exhibit were 3D scanned and have been made available to view, download, and 3D print.  Explore the collection here: https://3d.si.edu/browser/NPG_Presidential_Portraits

8-hour Shootout: A Digitization Showdown

The scene is set: capture 3 objects from the Freer|Sackler Gallery’s Chinese bronze collection with 3 different methods in 8 hours.  Our protagonists stand before us: 4 members of the DPO staff with sharp eyes and willing hearts.

Max Anderson is armed with an automated photogrammetry rig and enough flash power to blot out the sun.  His system leverages 4 50mpxl cameras, a set of strobes with softboxes and bounces to soak the scene in light, a turntable set to 10 degree intervals, and a light absorbing backdrop to make the objects appear to float in space.  The system has a proven throughput of 15 minutes per side, for a total 288 (252) captures in 30 minutes.  -  Jon Blundell stands alongside Max with a hand-held photogrammetry setup with polarizing filters to eliminate shine and enhance color.  His system is the only one unhindered by the shine of buffed bronze, and he can move at as fast a pace as his flash will fire.  

In Joe Conrad’s holster is a laser arm scanner capable of recording fine surface details without color. The 7 axis arm allows Joe to access tight nooks and crannies other won’t be able to get to.  This machine has a surface accuracy up to 35 microns and is the most agile of the methods.

Meg Dattoria stands beside the heaviest hitter in the game: the structured light scanner.  It is a beast of precision but unfortunately, also a beast to operate.  Each capture position must be meticulously dialed in, and on this machine the vibration of a near by footstep is enough of a disturbance to cause a capture to fail. She will utilize a turntable and adjustable studio stand to deftly maneuver her way around the objects without disturbing them.

In a cramped room behind the Freer|Sackler Galleries, members of the Digitization Program Office face off, each armed with a different scanning tool.  When the dust settles, who will have the best data, and at what cost?..

Our team is finishing up exterior 3D scanning of the Space shuttle Discovery at the @smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Each triangle represents an image taken, so far over 12,000 images are bring processed into a 3D model using photogrammetry software.

Get a sneak peak inside the Apollo 11 Command Module! Our team is 3D scanning the Command Module in collaboration with the National Air and Space Museum and Autodesk. We plan on delivering this model to the world in Summer 2016.

our @smithsonian team used 3D scanning tools to document and support research at this Ichthyosaur site in Nevada. Keep an eye on 3d.si.edu for models to view and download

3D Printable Lincoln challenges @smithsonian ​National Zoo in #SIshowdown - Vote now! http://showdown.si.edu/?s_src=siod_cm085pess3Dtmblr

We're hiring - live the dream and become a smithsonian Laser Cowboy/ Girl! https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/410981300

Experience the newly discovered Jamestown burial sites as a 3D Print or online with our 3D Viewer. This project is a collaboration with our office, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and Jamestown Rediscovery.

Help support our team #3D scan Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit by supporting the smithsonian‘s first ever kickstarter - We will make the #3D data available to the world!

Test 3D scanning a porcelain vase at the smithsonian’s freersackler Gallery using a structured light scanner

3D scanning Abraham Lincoln's life mask - Camera attached to laser arm scanner

small human birthed from dinosaur at the National Maker Faire

3D Haiku

Honored to have made this list on Peta Pixel

Photogrammetry dance party with the Spirit of Saint Louis