A consortium comprising Mainz University of Applied Sciences, the University of Jena, and the Saxon State Library in Dresden has successfully completed the first funding phase with the beta version of a free and openly accessible web-based 3D viewer. The application is a long-term solution for making 3D models available in the humanities.
A 3D reconstruction of Mainz Cathedral around 1250, the New New Synagogue in Wrocław from 1872, and the first steam engine are examples of numerous digital models stored in various web-based repositories. Computer-aided 3D reconstruction has been used for many years as a tool for research and knowledge dissemination in the humanities. However, information is frequently lost when digital 3D models are shared or made available, which has so far hindered access to data and research.
Long-Term Availability of 3D Reconstruction Models
A research team from Mainz, Jena, and Dresden has now released a 3D viewer that brings together 3D models and their metadata from two different repositories into a single web-based 3D viewer, making them available for the long term. “The DFG 3D Viewer paves the way for digital 3D reconstruction and computer-based 3D visualization to become recognized research methods by making the 3D models available online for the long term, thereby making them citable and, in the best case, reusable,” says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Piotr Kuroczyński, Director of the Institute of Architecture at Mainz University of Applied Sciences. With the release of the beta version of the 3D viewer, the researchers have completed the first funding phase for establishing a national research infrastructure for 3D data.
With funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG), researchers at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the Saxon State Library – State and University Library in Dresden—this browser-based 3D viewer infrastructure, which enables the easy management and display of 3D data and the associated metadata and will be available in the long term. From April 2021 to June 2023, the project team, led by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Piotr Kuroczyński (Professor of Applied Computer Science and Visualization in Civil Engineering, Mainz), Prof. Dr. Sander Münster (Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities, Jena), and Sebastian Meyer (Digital Library Office, Dresden) on developing the application.
Interdisciplinary Use: Plans to Expand to Additional Repositories for 3D Models
Repositories are web-based storage locations for digital objects. The two prototype repositories are the Mainz repository and the Jena repository. The 3D data from both repositories is made available via a direct link to the DFG 3D Viewer. The DFG 3D Viewer is designed not only to make raw data sets and metadata available for the long term, but also to facilitate scientific collaboration and discourse based on digital 3D models. An application for a second funding phase is currently being submitted to expand access to additional repositories for 3D models and thereby enable interdisciplinary use.
To test the alpha version of the 3D Viewer, a repository of representative 3D models—currently comprising 120 models—has been established since mid-2022 in collaboration with project partners from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the German Historical Museum in Munich, the University of Cologne, and the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, a repository of representative 3D models has been established, which currently comprises 120 models. For example, a 3D reconstruction of the first steam engine was added to this repository by the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Other models, such as a hypothetical 3D reconstruction of Mainz Cathedral around 1250 or the New Synagogue in Breslau from 1872, as well as a series of destroyed Polish wooden synagogues, are also part of the browser application.
A Tool for Research and Knowledge Dissemination
Since the 1990s, computer-aided 3D reconstruction has been used as a tool for research and knowledge dissemination in the humanities. The creation of these source-based 3D reconstructions is complex and time-consuming. Furthermore, sharing and making digital 3D models available is difficult. Results are often published only as two-dimensional images. In the process, information is repeatedly lost and becomes unavailable for later use. As a result, the accessibility—and thus the sustainability—of the research results is not guaranteed.
Despite existing prototypical infrastructures, humanities research with an object-specific focus has so far lacked a cross-domain, established, long-term, and low-threshold solution for providing 3D models. This is where the DFG project 3D-Viewer comes in. To this end, the researchers are pursuing a community-based approach: Most objects are to be uploaded and cataloged by the academic community according to defined standards—including the use of established data exchange formats (IFC/CityGML)—so that they can also be used for subsequent research.
About the Institute of Architecture at Mainz University of Applied Sciences:
The Institute of Architecture at Mainz University of Applied Sciences addresses, on the one hand, the requirements for the scientific documentation of computer-aided 3D modeling and, on the other hand, the web-based visualization of digital 3D models of destroyed or unrealized buildings. The FAIR data principles—data that complies with the principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability—are at the forefront of this work.
