Comparative Analysis of Photogrammetric Methods for 3D Models for Museums Unnur Erla Hafstað Ármannsdottir, François Anton, Darka Mioc Department of Geodesy, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark Elektrovej 328, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby uhafstad@gmail.com,{fa,mioc}@space.dtu.dk Abstract—The goal of this paper is to make a comparative analysis and selection of methodologies for making 3D models of historical items, buildings and cultural heritage and how to preserve information such as temporary exhibitions and archae- ological findings. Two of the methodologies analyzed correspond to 3D models using Sketchup and Designing Reality. Finally, panoramic photography is discussed as a 2D alternative to 3D. Sketchup is a free-ware 3D drawing program and Designing Reality is a commercial program, which uses Structure from motion. For each program/method, the same comparative analy- sis matrix has been used. Prototypes are made partly or fully and evaluated from the point of view of preservation of information by a museum. Index Terms—3D Reconstruction, 3D surface models, cylindri- cal panoramas, Google Sketchup, Designing Reality I. INTRODUCTION There are several museums and institutions around the world that have made, and are in the process of making, 3D models of museum items. According to Mr. Pletinckx [1], the making of 3D models in Cultural Heritage has different purposes: 3D for research, such as the Virtual reconstruction of Regolini- Galassi tomb; 3D for digital restoration, such as bronze disks from the Regolini-Galassi tomb, Italy; 3D to prepare physical restoration, such as Nymphaeum, Sagalassos, Turkey; 3D as documentation, such as Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, Malta; 3D as educational resource, such as Abbey of Saint-John, Biograd, Croatia; or 3D as communication tool, for visual reference and recontextualisation. The virtual reconstruction of the Regolini Galassi tomb, Italy, is a part of the European “Etruscanning 3D" project, which can be followed on the official blog [2]. With the help of 3D modeling, it has been possible to restore a part of the Nymphaeum at Sagalassos, Turkey. All the stand- ing architecture has been conserved and damaged structures, have been repaired using matching materials [3]. Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is an enormous subterranean structure excavated c. 2500 B.C. It is the only known prehistoric underground temple in the world [4]. At the website of Europeana, a 3D pdf can be viewed for further information on this model [5]. 3D models of museum items, historical buildings, archeo- logical sites etc. can be used those to create virtual tours. At the Virtual Museum Transnational Network(V-MUST) website [6], some of these virtual museums can be visited. In most cases, the viewer can take a virtual tour, making it possible to visit historical places online from anywhere around the world. A virtual tour can be guided or not and can include some or all of the following [6]: written descriptions, photographs and sound-files describing an item or telling a story; maps showing the geographical location of a museum or the internal location of the museum viewer; 3D models visualized as interactive objects and/or videos that make it possible for the viewer to explore an item from multiple view points; hypothesis and historical 3D models that make it possible to tell a story about how a certain place has evolved through centuries, or to visualize an ancient cite that no longer exists. The goal of this paper is to make a comparative analysis and selection of methodologies for making 3D models of historical items, buildings and cultural heritage and how to preserve information such as temporary exhibitions and archaeological findings. Two of the analyzed methodologies correspond to 3D models using Sketchup [7] and Designing Reality [8]. Finally, panoramic photography is discussed as a 2D alternative to 3D. Sketchup is a free-ware 3D drawing program and Designing Reality is a commercial program, which uses Structure from motion. For each program/method, functionality, the same comparative analysis matrix has been used. Prototypes are made partly or fully and evaluated from the point of view of preservation of information by a museum: the museum of Byggðasafnið Hvoll. Due to length, time and museum access constraints, we have not been able to combine these different methods. However, it is unlikely that the results of any linear combination of these methods would be very different than the linear combination of these results. This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, we present the methodology used in this research, while in Section III, we show the results of our comparative analysis. Finally, we conclude this paper with Section IV. II. METHODOLOGY In this section, we will present the different methods used in this paper: “Structure from Motion" using Designing Reality in Section II-A, Sketchup in Section II-B and the cylindrical panorama in Section II-C. A. Structure from Motion with Designing Reality Designing Reality is a software solution creating 3D models from 2D images. The program is commercial so access to the details of the implementation is not available. However, some examples of 3D models made with the program can be viewed on the official website of Designing Reality: people, 149 Copyright (c) IARIA, 2014. ISBN: 978-1-61208-326-1 GEOProcessing 2014 : The Sixth International Conference on Advanced Geographic Information Systems, Applications, and Services