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The Smithsonian Institute
Three overlapping fossils
Three overlapping fossils
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The Smithsonian Institute
SLS print of the fossil
SLS print of the fossil
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The Smithsonian Institute
Scanning fossils
Laser scanning whale fossils in the Atacama desert
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The Smithsonian Institute
Obama life mask
Life mask of President Obama
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The Smithsonian Institute
North View of Cerro Ballena
North View of Cerro Ballena
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The Smithsonian Institute
Night time scanning of La Familia
Night time scanning of La Familia
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The Smithsonian Institute
Dr-Pyenson-and-the-finished-3D-Print
Dr Pyenson and the finished 3D Print
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The Smithsonian Institute
Lincoln Life Mask
Lincoln Life Mask in X 3D Viewer
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The Smithsonian Institute
The Smithsonian Institute is home to an eclectic array of 137 million objects, artworks and specimens, from Teddy Roosevelt’s Teddy Bear to a 4.374-billion-year-old piece of the earth. But how much of that collection do you think is on display at the 19 Museums, 9 research centres and 180 affiliate museums? The answer is about 1%, the other 99% is either too precious to be on display or frankly doesn’t have the mass appeal to warrant an exhibition space.
“America’s Attic”, does want people to be able to explore the entire collection and the solution appears to revolve around 3D and the Smithsonian Digitization Program. The Digitization Program Office (DPO) ambitiously wants to scan every artefact in the Institute’s collection and present them to the world on their virtual platform.
“Our office’s mission is to support all of the Smithsonian museums and research centres,” Vincent Rossi, 3D Digitization Coordinator at The Smithsonian Institution told TCT. “In November 2013 we launched our project, Smithsonian X 3D. The Smithsonian X 3D Explorer was donated to us by Autodesk and gives anyone the ability to explore models online using our webGL storytelling tool. It gives people the opportunity to download our models and 3D print. The goal of the Smithsonian X 3D project was to scan an object or archaeological site from every Smithsonian museum and research centre to show the potential of 3D tech.”
Vince’s teammate Adam Metallo added, “With 3D data we can distribute our content online through our viewer, delivering high-resolution data to scientists around the world. We are also working closely with Smithsonian educators to wrap STEM curriculum around our 3D printable models. Our next goal is to make use of automated systems to scan entire collections instead of one off projects.”
A Presidential Project
One of the best examples of the work available on the Smithsonian X 3D site is the life mask of Abraham Lincoln taken just two months before he was shot dead at the age of 65.
The DPO team had to scan sculptor Clark Mills’ cast of the 16th President in order to digitise and build the 3D model, but for the 44th and latest President, they were able to scan more than just an inanimate object, they were able to scan the living, breathing Leader of the Free World himself, Barack Obama.
The scan that led to the 3D printed bust, which is plastered on our front cover, as well as a 3D printed life mask are destined for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The SLS 3D prints will sit alongside oil paintings of George Washington, plaster casts of Abraham Lincoln, a Giclée print of Bill Clinton to represent the changing eras of technology since the USA declared independence some 238 years ago.
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Exhibit at the UK's definitive and most influential 3D printing and additive manufacturing event, TCT 3Sixty.
In an Avengersesque manner The Oval Office called upon the Smithsonian, University of Southern California, Autodesk and 3D Systems to assemble in order to combine their considerable expertise in creating the best possible accuracy. That it is Obama who has become the first 3D scanned and printed President is apt, he has been banging the drum for 3D technologies since his 2013 State of the Union Address and the portraits were presented at the first White House Maker Faire.
Thrown to the whales
Though the DPO and Smithsonian X 3D was only officially launched in 2013 and the Presidential effort marks their most publicised work, during an early-stage pilot run the DPO team were given quite the baptism of fire when Dr. Nicholas Pyenson called in 2011.
Dr Pyenson is the Principal Investigator of one of the most extensive and astounding archaeological sites on earth, Cerro Ballena. The site, which roughly translates to “Whale Hill”, is located in well-known fossil goldmine, the Atacama Desert.
While working on the Pan-American Highway construction workers began to reveal what would become the densest site for individual fossils of extinct marine life ever discovered. Pyenson’s first sighting of Cerro Ballena gave him shivers, he knew this was perhaps the most important discovery in his field of palaeontology, but it was soon to be paved over and Chilean museum workers had already began to bag the bones.
“I had a problem on my hands; how do I capture all the current information about these incredibly large skeletons in a very rapid and accurate way?” Dr Pyenson told TCT Magazine.
“The 3D Digitization Office had just started and, by chance, I had bumped into both Adam and Vince who I would later call “The Laser Cowboys”. I met them in my department while they were conducting a pilot study of digitisation on some fossils. I was able to convince their boss and the Laser Cowboys were on a plane to Chile with me within two weeks.”
The DPO team arrived at the site armed with all the technologies they could possibly need. “We used a variety of 3D scanning technologies - laser arm scanning, medium range laser scanning and photogrammetry,” Vince noted.
Pyenson continued, “scanning a site of this scale had never been done before, Adam and Vince had tremendous amount of foresight in bringing multiple systems down as contingencies. You never know what might go wrong in the field, one of the mid-range laser scanners ended up collecting uncalibrated data.”
With the big wheels of industry bearing down on them – both metaphorically and literally as 18 wheelers thundered through the site, each passing increasing the chance of disturbing the fossils, which had lain undisturbed for the previous six to nine million years - the team had just two-weeks to complete the scanning that Pyenson thought vital for future studies.
“With this technology we now have the ability to document the surroundings in precise and faithful detail, it captures information with a specific time stamp and precise GPS co-ordinates. That’s just as important as if it was the carcass of a rare species or if it was a fossil that was eroding out of a cliff face because these specimens are constantly losing information from the second that you retrieve them. We need to document these things as they undergo this great path of discovery in the field to them ending up at a museum for posterity.”
The digitisation of the site has allowed Dr Pyenson and his colleagues to publish their findings, which came to the conclusion that the multiple deaths at the mass graveyard were caused by harmful algal blooms (HABs) that are still a cause of mass strandings today. Because there were no land scavengers in South America during the Miocene period (23.03 to 5.332 million years ago) the skeletons remained largely intact until they were discovered in 2011.
“The tools in this field haven’t changed in 150 years; we still use plaster, we still use hammers and pick axes; to see the 3D models that we collected with technology three years ago under time-sensitive conditions shows how important this technology will be,” continued Pyenson. “When you have the ability to generate 3D models from a cell phone or tablet, well, you realise that that really is a game changer. “
The term “game changer” is often bandied around when writing about this technology, but in natural history studies it has more significance than just marketing hyperbole.
“The penetration of smartphone technology means that there is a chance that somebody seeing a fossil for the first time might be able to capture the relevant data on their smartphone and then send that to somebody that might know more,” enthused Pyenson. “It is a big challenge in natural history studies to understand what previous workers were doing when all you might have from a fossil in a museum draw is a little note on where it was found. You have to go to do a lot of detective work that involves tracking down maps and field notes. With 3D you’d have is full documentation of what that specimen looked like, when it was salvaged, where it was found. You can draw so much more of a fossils long arch from discovery to museum draw.”
Futureproofing
3D has the ability to transform natural history studies across the globe, the beta Smithsonian X 3D project is an example of how the world’s scientific communities could collaborate on objects both virtually and physically with the aid of a 3D printer. But despite all the tools being in place Dr. Pyenson doesn’t believe we’re quite ready yet.
“The sharing of natural history files absolutely changes the way studies are conducted but there are a few obstacles we need to hurdle before that is possible. Although it is absolutely possible to share the files, we have to ensure that, firstly, the files that are being shared have the highest fidelity and it also is a frontier that will have to involve museum administrators and lawyers. Because it is so new there isn’t a good legal infrastructure in place for how we share these 3D files, they’re facsimiles just like a research cast would be.”
Pyenson raves about the 3D Systems full 20 foot SLS print of the centrepiece of the Cerro Ballena collection, which is now mounted at the National Museum of Natural History but he is still slightly reserved when it comes to 3D printing’s capability in research usage.
“Making a mould cast of a fossil has been done for well over 100 years, I would argue that they’re much higher quality than any 3D printer could achieve. That doesn’t mean 3D printers won’t get better and surpass moulds but what it does mean is that it is a better use of your time to generate a mould if possible. You can take electronic scanning microscope images off a cast made from a silicone mould but you cannot do with 3D printing as the build lines are too big. “
“However you may not be in a position to take a mould from an individual fossil, you might be too far away or it might be too delicate, there’s an example on the Smithsonian X 3D website. That fossil from Panama was way too delicate to make a traditional research cast from, so we CT scanned it and built a 3D model, from that we were able to print a full sized model and paint it, the printed and painted model looks exactly like the original and will go on display at the museum in Panama. I love finding out all these new avenues and workflows for solutions that relate to the social context of how we do science. “
The Digitization Program will change the way natural history can be studied, potentially globalising and democratising research from scientists at opposites sides of the globe. Digitisation shows that, unlike the Cetaceans found at Cerro Ballena, the Smithsonian Institute will continue to evolve to ensure it never goes extinct.
