Spotlights
November 5, 2020
3D museum tour of Hallwyl House attracts fans around the world
Erik Lernestål is a photographer at the National Historical Museums in Stockholm, Sweden, a government agency under the Swedish Ministry of Culture. The group has six individual museums under its wings along with the country’s largest outfit of archaeologists.
The six museums are the Hallwyl Museum, the Swedish History Museum, the Royal Armory, the Skokloster Castle, the Tumba Papermill Museum, and the Royal Coin Cabinet.
Their purpose is to promote knowledge of and interest in the history of Sweden, and to preserve and develop the cultural heritage within their care. They strongly believe in openness and sharing, and so their digital resources (collection database, hi-res 2D images, 3D models, etc.) are made available with the user in mind, and are free to use and re-use under open licenses.
“Most of the people of the world will never visit any of our museums," says Erik. "But digital technologies, such as photogrammetry, provide fantastic new ways and opportunities to reach out and to promote the historical interest to a wider audience throughout Sweden, and globally.
“With that being said, technology has no self-purpose for us. It merely provides us with various potential tools for delivering knowledge. Photogrammetry is such a tool and one can create a stunning 3D model of an object but if it is used out of its context, it will just be a cool thing on a screen at best.”
At the National Historical Museums, they connect their 3D models with information about the object's origin, its history, its owner, and its composition, and have thus created a digital asset that they can use as a tool for storytelling and conveying knowledge.
The six museums are the Hallwyl Museum, the Swedish History Museum, the Royal Armory, the Skokloster Castle, the Tumba Papermill Museum, and the Royal Coin Cabinet.
Their purpose is to promote knowledge of and interest in the history of Sweden, and to preserve and develop the cultural heritage within their care. They strongly believe in openness and sharing, and so their digital resources (collection database, hi-res 2D images, 3D models, etc.) are made available with the user in mind, and are free to use and re-use under open licenses.
“Most of the people of the world will never visit any of our museums," says Erik. "But digital technologies, such as photogrammetry, provide fantastic new ways and opportunities to reach out and to promote the historical interest to a wider audience throughout Sweden, and globally.
“With that being said, technology has no self-purpose for us. It merely provides us with various potential tools for delivering knowledge. Photogrammetry is such a tool and one can create a stunning 3D model of an object but if it is used out of its context, it will just be a cool thing on a screen at best.”
At the National Historical Museums, they connect their 3D models with information about the object's origin, its history, its owner, and its composition, and have thus created a digital asset that they can use as a tool for storytelling and conveying knowledge.
The Hallwyl House in Stockholm was built as a winter home for the immensely rich couple Walther and Wilhelmina von Hallwyl and was completed in 1898. This palatial residence is now one of the city's most eccentric and engaging museums.
The rooms have stayed as originally furnished by Wilhelmina von Hallwyl, and stands as a unique testimonial of the lifestyle and décor of the late Victorian period in Sweden. However, the museum is quite inaccessible to people that are not able to walk the many stairs in the house. Due to the fact that the house is a preserved time capsule from the late 19th century, no modern elevator has ever been installed.
And so in 2017, they launched an accessibility project with the ambition to digitally “lower the threshold“ to the museum through the use of photogrammetry.
A test scan of the top floor Picture Gallery received a lot of positive feedback, so they ended up scanning all of the first floor State Rooms. Ten in total. The resulting models, created from the start to finish in RealityCapture, were published on Sketchfab, where people can enjoy added annotations and audio guides and learn more about the history of the house and the people who lived and worked there. The models are also free to download and to re-use under open licences (CC-BY).
You can take a 3D tour of Hallwyl House's Great Drawing Room on Sketchfab.
Erik used Panasonic GX8 cameras equipped with 25 mm lenses to capture 1,300-2,500 images per room. Below you can see a part of the actual capturing process as well as the resulting camera alignment in RealityCapture. The capturing process was repeated at three different heights around the rooms.
The rooms have stayed as originally furnished by Wilhelmina von Hallwyl, and stands as a unique testimonial of the lifestyle and décor of the late Victorian period in Sweden. However, the museum is quite inaccessible to people that are not able to walk the many stairs in the house. Due to the fact that the house is a preserved time capsule from the late 19th century, no modern elevator has ever been installed.
And so in 2017, they launched an accessibility project with the ambition to digitally “lower the threshold“ to the museum through the use of photogrammetry.
A test scan of the top floor Picture Gallery received a lot of positive feedback, so they ended up scanning all of the first floor State Rooms. Ten in total. The resulting models, created from the start to finish in RealityCapture, were published on Sketchfab, where people can enjoy added annotations and audio guides and learn more about the history of the house and the people who lived and worked there. The models are also free to download and to re-use under open licences (CC-BY).
You can take a 3D tour of Hallwyl House's Great Drawing Room on Sketchfab.
Erik used Panasonic GX8 cameras equipped with 25 mm lenses to capture 1,300-2,500 images per room. Below you can see a part of the actual capturing process as well as the resulting camera alignment in RealityCapture. The capturing process was repeated at three different heights around the rooms.
The scans received quite a lot of attention. Their work was staff-picked several times by Sketchfab, and to date the models have been viewed more than 150,000 times and downloaded more than 16,000 times. As for the tour itself, excited virtual visitors have even posted independent fan videos on YouTube.
Their latest 3D project involves the Royal Armory in Stockholm and its recently reopened and completely remade permanent exhibition. Here you can find a 55” 4k touch screen on which you can interact with eight high-resolution 3D models of selected pieces of armor from the collections.
You can explore a 3D model of the Parade Armor of King Erik XIV of Sweden on Sketchfab.
Their latest 3D project involves the Royal Armory in Stockholm and its recently reopened and completely remade permanent exhibition. Here you can find a 55” 4k touch screen on which you can interact with eight high-resolution 3D models of selected pieces of armor from the collections.
You can explore a 3D model of the Parade Armor of King Erik XIV of Sweden on Sketchfab.
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