Virtual Antiquities Museum

During your visit to any museum, have you ever fancied if you can hold an artifact or opened a coffin to examine the mummy with all its intricate details? As Bibliotheca Alexandrina continues its ancient role of knowledge dissemination and sharing the latest technologies to the world, the BA virtual museum application was developed.

In a very realistic game-like experience , the virtual museum application allows you to do much more than just examining and admiring the artifacts. The application simulates the BA antiquities museum allowing visitors to have a complete walk through all of the museum sections in a guided tour and with remarkable features for researchers, archeologists or simply any interested visitor.

About the application

The application depicts the BA antiquities museum with the same design, dimensions and structure as the real one. The VISTA team started the development and data collection for the application in mid-2014.Using a 3D scanner they scanned about 600 artifacts in the museum to obtain the highest quality simulation with their texture and color . Moreover, the exact data for each artifact was manually entered to be used in the search features and many more.Currently, the application is in the testing phase to be soon launched after all data for the artifacts is entered and further pieces are scanned.

The Features of the virtual museum application

• As a visitor you can have a complete walkthrough the entire museum and use the search feature to be guided to a specific artifact or even fly there immediately using the application.

• The application allows you to hold, rotate the artifacts and even shed a spotlight on any faded inscription for close inspection. Using this feature the visitors can open the mummy’s coffins for a thorough inspection and viewing any hidden details.

• Taking a snapshot while visiting the museum is no longer forbidden. Using the snapshot feature in the application you can capture any artifact photograph and retrieve it after finishing your tour.

• The application holds all detailed data about museum’s artifacts allowing visitors to have a complete guided tour and even read the inscriptions using the translate feature.

• The compare feature enables researchers to compare any artifacts to its similar copy in any other museum around the world, listing any similarities or differences.

• For archeologists and researchers, the application has a measuring tool that allows them to accurately measure the artifacts eliminating any human error. Using the 3D cross section feature, they can even measure the cross sections of artifacts for more accurate results.

• The application allows archeologists to visualize any reconstruction theories for damaged artifacts.

• Another remarkable feature of the application is that the monuments in the museum can be relocated to their original setting, allowing visitors to visualize history.