3D Scanning Workshop: A velvet cap preserved in the digital sphere

17 March 2022

Thanks to new high-speed, highly-accurate 3D scanning technologies, objects and precious artefacts can now be made accessible around the globe at the click of a button. Dr Janina Schupp, SOUTHWORKS Career Development Fellow for the Digital Hub,  reports on the subject of our latest Bootcamp workshop.  

The workshop group is looking at a beautiful velvet rugby cap, trimmed with faded gold stitching and the Prince of Wales Feathers. The cap in question belonged to alumnus William Edward Jones (1916, Theology), who later went on to become Dean of Brecon Cathedral (1950-64), and was donated to College in 2020 by his family. Normally, it resides, carefully wrapped in tissue, in a box kept in the College archives, but today the cap is the first item from our College collections to be undergoing the 3D scanning process.

The rugby cap belonged to alumnus William Edward Jones (1916, Theology) and is now housed in the College archives.

 

3D scanning is the procedure of converting physical objects into accurate digital models, enabling the quick and precise capture of an object’s texture, colours, and geometries. The technology is not new, but its accessibility to academic researchers is, as scanning equipment and software becomes more affordable and user-friendly. Already adopted in many industrial and healthcare settings, for example to accurately create made-to-measure prosthesis, model dental implants, and speed up reverse engineering processes, the possibilities are multifarious.

Dentistry is one of multiple applications for 3D scanning technology.

 

For Duncan Murdock from the University’s Museum of Natural History (UOMNH), who is leading today’s workshop, the technology enables him and like-minded researchers, to image, observe and better understand the fossils in their collection. The UOMNH houses a large assortment of fossils from mammals dating back to the Ice Age – including local fossils excavated from sites along the Oxfordshire length of the River Thames. Looking at a high-precision 3D model of an object allows the viewer to see things that even the most expert eye might miss and to avoid damage to these irreplaceable artefacts.

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Duncan Murdock from the University of Oxford’s Museum of Natural History demonstrates the Artec ‘Space Spider’ 3D scanner by scanning a red rubber duck

 

For our Digital Hub Bootcamp, Duncan is showcasing two different types of scanners that the UOMNH uses: the Artec Space Spider and the Artec Eva. At first glance, both look like high-tech irons with flashing lights, but as Duncan explains, these handheld 3D scanners have extraordinary capabilities to collect data – including colour, surface texture, and geometry – which is then processed via specialist software to produce first a polygonal mesh, and then a high-resolution textured digital model. As each workshop participant gets a chance to try their hands at 3D scanning, we discover that the Space Spider is suited to the rapid scanning of smaller objects – such as W.E. Jones’ cap or a wax seal, while the Eva can scan larger objects, such as a clock from the College collections.

Junior Research Fellow Dr Rachel Taylor creates a 3D scan of a wax seal from the College’s collection.

 

So how do we scan our titular sporting artefact, and what can the 3D model tell us about it that we don’t already know?  After a quick demo from Duncan, using the Space Spider scanner and a yellow-beaked red rubber duck, it’s time to find out.

Dr Robin Darwall-Smith, our College Archivist, gently rests the rugby cap on the turntable, which will enable it to be turned and scanned smoothly. He then picks up the lightweight scanner and points it towards the cap at a distance of around 10cms. After a couple of button clicks, Robin starts moving it over the surface of the cap, allowing it to capture data on the object’s shape and texture. This data is then analysed by the software (in this case Artec Studio), and we begin to see a grainy 3D model of the cap appear on a large screen behind him. Essentially, the process is like taking a vast series of photographs of an object from all angles and then overlapping them to create a single image.

 

As Robin (filmed above) perfects his scanning technique, soon enough the 3D renderings of the cap are complete and ready to be edited. Duncan shows us how the software can patch together the renderings, using target points of the cap’s geometry, to create one complete model, and employs machine learning to fill in incomplete areas of information – in this case the tassel of the cap and an area around the brim. The final 3D model can be rotated around a 360-degree axis, so can be studied at any angle with ease.

The original rugby cap and its 3D digital twin.

 

In a little under 15 minutes, we are looking in awe at an exact 3D replica of the cap, and the additional detail is incredible. Firstly, we can now clearly see the embroidered ‘Ich Dien’ under the Prince of Wales Feathers, which wasn’t visible before. We can also see the luscious texture of the velvet and the intricacy of the gold stitching, which was obviously done by hand. Somehow, the 3D version of the cap looks almost more life-like than the original.

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Christopher Lyes, a DPhil Candidate in Classical Archaeology, scans a piece of Grossa Oscura tufo – the stone that formed the bedrock of Rome.

 

The opportunities that such 3D scanning technology presents are formidable for researchers and the wider public. Objects, such as (possibly) those in the College collections, can now be preserved beyond their natural decay, and made accessible around the globe at the click of a button. Produced at high speed and with high accuracy, these digital replicas provide a permanent record of any object that can be studied in close-up detail – removing the need to travel to and handle the real counterpart, which is especially advantageous for less accessible or fragile artefacts.

It’s exciting to have had first-hand experience of how 3D scanning might enhance research in the future, and for our workshop participants to have a go themselves. Such live digital experiences are a key objective of the new Cheng Kar Shun Digital Hub, and I look forward to developing many more in the future.