Page 174 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

174of elds, spearheaded by companies and institu- tions that are fully convinced of their potential and bene ts for heritage.2.5.1 3D printingIn recent years the application of 3D technolo- gies to cultural heritage has reaped successful results which are having an impact on the preservation, enhancement and dissemination of heritage. Today the emergence of 3D printers is opening up further new horizons in this sector.There is no doubt that 3D printing has gaineda strong foothold in the heritage eld and that, despite being the newest technology, it has already proved its interpretive potential and capabilities. We should not forget that resources such as models and mock-ups have been around for a long time in this eld owing to the advan- tages of physical models that are tangible and permanent – aspects which have traditionally ensured their popularity and longevity. This qual- ity has been inherited to an extent by 3D-printed models, which have spurred something of a revival of such resources thanks to the accuracy of 3D models and the ease of reproducing and physically materialising them. We have already discussed the importance to cultural heritage of 3D scanning and photogrammetric techniques, which make it possible to extensively document cultural assets, and the existence of 3D models of them with a high degree of detail and realism. These models have been used for virtual recon- structions in several applications which help visualise and disseminate heritage assets, but what 3D printing does is give the vast collection of records we call digital heritage additional functions by physically materialising it beyond the screen.Virtex and Virtex Light3D printing plays an important role in dissemi- nating heritage through small-scale reproduc- tions ideally suited to exhibition venues which,in combination with other technologies, enhance their educational value. Such is the case of the Virtex and Virtex Light243 systems developed by Visual Dimension,244 which were used for the international exhibition Keys to Rome during2014 (Capurro et al., 2015). For the rst system, called Virtex, the Roman sculpture from the rst century BC known as the Augustus of Prima Porta, housed in the Vatican Museums in Rome, was used. The 3D model was based on the work carried out as part of The Digital Sculpture Project,245 which enabled a digital copy of the sculpture to be made for printing and previously adjusted to install a device to be subsequently incorporated into the printed 1:6 scale replica. This system consisted of orientation sensors which, together with tactile sensors, sent data via a wireless USB connection that relayed it to an external processor. When the user handled the Augustus of Prima Porta, a three-dimensional virtual copy of the sculpture with its original polychrome appeared on a screen next to the in- stallation and reproduced the user’s movements on the real model. There were also a number of points of interest which, when pressed, activated a video explaining the characteristics and ico- nography of this unique Roman artwork.The Virtex Light system took as a referencethe monument and altar of Ara Pacis Augustae ( rst century BC), located in the city of Rome. The monument was erected to commemorate Augustus’s victories in the provinces of Hispania and Gaul, which led to peace. In this case the system consisted solely of tactile sensors onthe surface of the 3D-printed 1:37 scale model, as here the user did not handle the piece but pressed each of the points of interest. An augmented virtual copy would then appear on the screen showing the details of the complex iconography contained in the reliefs decorating the altar, including a reconstruction of the original polychrome and historical records on the excavation and subsequent reconstruction by means of anastylosis [online resource - video].2462. DISSEMINATION, ENHANCEMENT AND EDUCATIONThe use of digital technologies in the conservation, analysis and dissemination of cultural heritage