Recently the Society for the Preservation of Canada’s Nuclear Heritage Inc (SPCNHI) has gone virtual, in a virtuous way. Thanks to a generous donation from a local donor, Owl Virtual Tours (owlvirtual.tours) of Deep River was able to offer five free scans to Renfrew County museums; the Canadian Clock Museum had previously been scanned to great success, so it was time for us to take the plunge, and we are delighted with the results.
On Saturday November 5, Elliott Morreau of Owl Virtual Tours visited our collection at 51 Poplar (aka Area 51). His equipment seemed straightforward – a large sophisticated camera on a tripod and an I-pad to control it. He placed the tripod, remotely set it to scan, and the camera rotated. Presto, a 360-degree photo was taken. The tripod was then moved a couple of metres to a new location, and another photo was taken – perhaps 20 or 25 in all. Before each scan was taken we hid out of sight of the camera – the last thing I wanted was for me to be included in a shot, in case I was mistaken for an old relic or ancient artifact.
As the scanning progressed, the plan-view generated on the I-pad grew in sophistication, with walls and artifacts appearing. Somehow (magically I’m assuming), the images were turned into a 3-dimensional model of our collection and building. After one and a half hours Elliott went home perform some editing, and to upload a “beta version” to the web for the SPCNHI directors to “walk through”. We were not disappointed – it was almost like being in person (and I wondered why we hadn’t done a scan done earlier). Since then, the virtual model has been cleaned up and some artifacts have been tagged with explanatory notes. You can view the inside of the museum as an external “doll house” model or you can move through the interior, stopping to look about or read tags. Clever, astoundingly clever. If you like, you can measure the size of an artifact with a ruler tool.
After a few edits, we went public, and the response has been very very good. So check us out at www.nuclearheritage.com and inspect some of the artifacts. It might be enough to entice you out of your favourite armchair and arrange an in-person visit.