{"id":18322,"date":"2017-01-30T16:20:37","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T21:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=18322"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:35:31","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:35:31","slug":"the-old-well-in-3-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=18322","title":{"rendered":"The Old-Well – In 3-D"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steve
Steve Davis, the associate director of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology, takes pictures of the Old Well from a cherry picker.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether it\u2019s the backdrop for a cap and gown photo after Commencement or the must-see stop for visitors, the Old Well is one of the most photographed spots on campus.<\/p>\n

And perhaps nobody has taken more photos of the Carolina icon than Steve Davis.<\/p>\n

Davis and his colleagues at the University\u2019s Research Laboratories of Archaeology have spent days on McCorkle Place photographing every inch of the Old Well to create a virtual 3-D model of the landmark \u2014 a process that led to a new, digital museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was one of the first projects that we did,\u201d said Davis, the associate director of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology in the College of Arts and Sciences. \u201cWe wanted something interesting and iconic that we could shoot. The Old Well was the logical choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The model, which was created using more than 400 photos of the Old Well, is now on display in Research Laboratories of Archaeology\u2019s virtual museum,<\/a> where viewers can see the structure from every angle.<\/p>\n

It took the group nearly two years to get the interactive model right.<\/p>\n

Davis and his team began the project in March 2015 to start learning the 3-D modeling technology before heading out for their annual summer excavations. After several days taking photos of the Old Well \u2014\u00a0including time in a cherry picker to get a bird\u2019s-eye view \u2014 the team had hundreds of photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed every point on the Old Well to be visible in at least two photos \u2014preferably in many more,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWhen you photograph, you want to have a lot of overlaps because the software is going to look at a lot of photographs and look at common points in those photographs that it can tie together.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they began uploading the photos into the software, however, they realized how complex the structure would be to model. Their computers could only handle a tenth of the photos needed for a complete rendering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe base looked great, the top looked great, but the columns just looked terrible,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt was a learning experience. It was all new to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until more than a year later that the team finished the model using improved software, and with the help of Carolina alumnus Ken Varner, who owns a company that provides extensive computer modeling for commercial and engineering use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Old Well initially didn\u2019t work out, but even though we didn\u2019t get a successful model, we learned a lot of things that made us more comfortable applying the technology,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n

Since the first attempt at the Old Well model in 2015, Carolina\u2019s archaeologists have integrated the state-of-the-art technology into their standard work, creating 3-D renderings of artifacts found at excavation sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us highly accurate, detailed, photo-realistic models that anybody can look at,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe can take measurements on those models. We can analyze the object through the model and we can see details that might not be clearly visible in the original object. It\u2019s a very useful analytic tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

But more importantly, the technology can better document the excavation site itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process of archaeological excavation is destructive, so we\u2019re always looking for better ways to document what we see in the field because nobody\u2019s ever going to see it again,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThat\u2019s the evidence that interpretations are based on.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of the models are available online at the virtual museum, where professional and amateur archaeologists can better view hundreds of years of history. It\u2019s a project that all began in a cherry picker above the Old Well.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a new technology and you just try things with it,\u201d Davis said. \u201cYou see what works and what doesn\u2019t. Since then, we\u2019ve had two summers in the field, modeling excavated surfaces and we\u2019ve constructed over 370 models of artifacts for our virtual museum.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about the 3-D imaging, see Centuries old meet high tech<\/em>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/skfb.ly\/ZrEs<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether it\u2019s the backdrop for a cap and gown photo after Commencement or the must-see stop for visitors, the Old Well is one of the most photographed spots on 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