蜜桃视频

鈥淩ick鈥檚 contributions are allowing our students to do an incredibly cool, unique and useful project,鈥� said Frank Stewart, senior development officer for the College of Science and Engineering at ISU. 鈥淭hat project is virtualization.鈥�

Carron, who now lives in Altadena, California, grew up in Pocatello and graduated from ISU with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in biology. His interest in the museum began at a young age after he found an amphibian and took it to the museum to find out more about it.

鈥淚 ran into Dr. Edson Fichter, who later would become my zoology professor, and he told me what the amphibian was and he was very interested in my curiosity,鈥� Carron said. 鈥淔rom there, I became an unofficial collector for him. I collected small animal specimens and he taught me to prepare those specimens for the museum.鈥�

Carron continued working with the museum throughout his youth and during his time at ISU. In 1986, after the death of his father, Carron created a memorial in the form of an endowment that he chose to place in the museum.

The 蜜桃视频 Virtualization Lab at the 蜜桃视频 Museum of Natural History began in 2003 with a push from Ralph Chapman, a former faculty member at the 蜜桃视频 Museum of Natural History. Over the years, the lab has continued to grow and expand thanks in large part to generous donors, like the Hitz Foundation and Carron, who support the mission of the museum and the lab and provide funds for students to gain real-world experience with the software and technology used in it.

One such beneficiary of Carron鈥檚 endowment is ISU graduate student Travis Helm who is one of several students and museum employees working to scan all of the modern mammal and bird material in the 蜜桃视频 Museum of Natural History鈥檚 collections to make it available online.

The lab uses laser-based scanners that measure the distance from the laser to the bone or object. The light comes from the laser and the software and laser measure the return distance to create a live, digital image that is built before the technician鈥檚 eyes.

鈥淭he primary thing we鈥檙e doing as a lab is taking physical objects, like fossils and artifacts, for example, and turning them into three-dimensional digital objects,鈥� said Leif Tapanila, director of the 蜜桃视频 Museum of Natural History.

According to Tapanila, there are a few different applications and reasons behind creating those digital objects.

鈥淔undamentally, as a museum, we have stuff鈥攑hysical stuff鈥攁nd we鈥檙e charged with keeping it forever and also with bringing it to the public,鈥� Tapanila said.  鈥淪o, in one fell swoop, by digitizing it and making it into a three-dimensional object, you can archive it so that physical likeness is captured forever and you can also distribute it online and make it accessible to anyone in the world, even if they can鈥檛 make it to Pocatello.鈥�

Aside from those two key applications, there are also scientific and research applications for virtualization that further the physical objects. This also makes for a richer, enhanced experience to bones and collections that provide a window into what they were actually like.

鈥淥nce you get all of the skeletal elements of an animal scanned in, you can reconstruct it and in a digital environment, you can make muscle attachments and you can actually do some modeling of the animal and how it actually functions,鈥� Tapanila said. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 really do that with the physical objects.鈥�

Another benefit of the 3-D scanning technology being used by the lab is that it is a non-contact replication method, as opposed to past methods of replicating subjects, which included pouring rubber over the subject and pulling a mold. This non-contact method allows a virtually risk-free means to replicate fossils, bones and other artifacts as opposed to pouring and pulling physical molds of the objects. The accuracy of the technology is also unmatched.

鈥淲ith virtualization, the laser light we use to scan is a low-intensity light source that isn鈥檛 doing any damage to the subject,鈥� said Tapanila. 鈥淵ou could scan something a million times and it鈥檚 not going to affect it, which is a real benefit for the archival side of things.鈥�

The lab is one of a very limited number of labs like it in the United States. The Smithsonian Museum and only a handful of other museums have similar labs, which lends to the considerable volume of calls the museum has received from others looking to replicate its setup. 

鈥淥ften, when we talk about the fairly large start-up investment to replicate our lab, museums end up asking us to scan their objects for them since we鈥檙e such a well-oiled machine at this point, and we鈥檝e gotten several contracts doing that,鈥� Tapanila said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a huge demand for physical objects and museums that want this kind of resource for themselves, but in addition to that fairly significant capital investment, you also need human beings who know how to use this technology and that鈥檚 what our lab specializes in. It鈥檚 a real asset to the area.鈥�

鈥淭he truth of the matter is the museum is not adequately funded as an entity of the state of 蜜桃视频,鈥� Carron said. 鈥淲e need outside money in the way of endowments and gifts, but there鈥檚 also a commercial opportunity to be had. There are some very intelligent and creative people in the museum who I understand have been creating some interesting and fantastic creatures on their own based on their fossil collection and those are the types of things that end up on the movie screen.鈥�

Carron notes the accurate biological depictions in the blockbuster hit 鈥淎vatar,鈥� directed by James Cameron, as an example of a film application of the 蜜桃视频 Virtualization Lab鈥檚 work.

鈥淎vatar created a biological world that was so amazing to me that it held my rapt attention throughout,鈥� Carron said. 鈥淚 was constantly looking for the birds, the plants and the animals. They were not of our world, but they were accurate. They were accurate biologically in many ways and this is what movie makers like. They don鈥檛 want clunky looking monsters and strange looking creatures that don鈥檛 make sense. This is an instance where we can combine science and art. We鈥檙e ready to show what we can do and hopefully it will attract attention and hopefully it will bring in some work in the future.鈥�

Tapanila also sees the potential to attract more people to the museum鈥檚 physical displays through the virtualization project.

鈥淚 think there was an initial concern by some that virtualization spelled the end of the physical museum,鈥� Tapanila said. 鈥淚 honestly don鈥檛 think that would happen, people still want the real thing. More than that, who in the world of nearly 7 billion people know about Pocatello and our museum unless we put it up online and make it accessible? By doing that, the chance of people around the world discovering what you have is that much greater, and if they have the opportunity to visit, it鈥檚 that much more likely that they will.鈥�

The lab recently acquired a new, handheld scanner that can capture a broader range of subjects, including people,which wasn鈥檛 possible before. One application for this technology is the fitting of clothing or the fitting of prosthetics.  The lab could scan an individual鈥檚 arm, for example, and get the measurements for a prosthetic from that 3-D scan.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 an area we鈥檙e really interested in developing,鈥� Tapanila said. 鈥淎gain, we鈥檙e the only lab in an enormous area capable of capturing that information so we鈥檙e interested in partnering with medical services if there鈥檚 a need we can address. There鈥檚 certainly demand for it and, locally, there鈥檚 probably not a source to get scans of live people with this type of technology.鈥�

Currently, CT scans are used for many of these applications, but those scans come with a radiation risk to the subject in addition to being of a lesser quality and greater price than what can be produced with the lab鈥檚 handheld laser technology.

鈥淚鈥檓 very pleased that Leif Tapanila is acting as the director of the museum,鈥� said Carron. 鈥淗e鈥檚 got a lot of energy, he鈥檚 intelligent and he鈥檚 pragmatic. He鈥檚 going to do good things for the museum and I want to support that as much as I can. I will always want to help the museum if I can. It鈥檚 very important to me.鈥�