The Science of 3D

Visits to museums on rainy afternoons have just become a lot more interesting thanks to revolutionary technology that allows artefacts to be scanned and modelled in 3D and then studied from all angles in a way the original could never be. UCL's Petrie Museum has benefited from a shared-use agreement between the university and Canadian firm Arius3D, which makes the colour laser scanners.

The six-year collaboration, negotiated by Dr Anna Clark, UCL Corporate Partnerships, is one of the university’s most enduring business relationships. The technology has attracted interest from a range of disciplines, from engineering to biomedicine, architecture to psychology. Arius3D has benefited from its association with a world-class university.

To curators and conservators of museums everywhere, restoring and preserving the priceless objects in their care is an ongoing concern. For a small but important museum like UCL’s Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, which houses items such as one of the oldest dresses and a fragment from the earliest calendar, this presents a dilemma: you want the treasures to be seen and studied by as many people as possible, but you need to keep them in the dark – literally. “We have to keep the lighting low to protect the artefacts from deterioration. We offer visitors the loan of torches,” says Tonya Nelson, Manager of the Petrie Museum.

For the past five years, a very 21st century object has, well, shone a light on the way ahead. It is a state-of-the-art 3D colour laser scanner, made by Canadian firm Arius3D, and it has provided a new way of bringing the collection out of storage (only 10%, or 8,000, artefacts are on display at any one time). Scanning is a painstaking process, as the laser must pass over an artefact many times to capture it from all sides and then the scans must be assembled into a model. But afterwards, says Tonya, "the models can be rotated and viewed from angles and perspectives not possible in the real displays. 3D scanning and visualisation not only preserves objects but enhances the visitor experience, letting people see things in ways they never have before."

More information:

• Arius3D Partnership
• Case study Arius3D Partnership with UCL Enterprise

Enterprise is important to all universities, but resonates particularly with UCL. From our inception, we were created as an enterprising institution, with a bold ambition to create a university dedicated to the greatest good for the greatest number. This principle has underpinned the evolution of modern-day UCL, a confident and enthusiastic community of enterprising researchers, educators and scholars, working together for the immediate, medium and long-term benefit of society. UCL Enterprise provides UCL’s structures for engaging with business for commercial and societal benefit. It includes three units: UCL Advances, UCL Business and UCL Consultants. Together, they provide access to the capabilities and resources of the UCL community to help businesses start, grow and develop.

The centre for entrepreneurship, UCL Advances, offers training, networking and business support for staff, students and external entrepreneurs to encourage and enable new enterprises to get going. Unique in the UK higher education sector, its primary role is to promote a culture of entrepreneurship on campus and engagement with entrepreneurs and small businesses beyond UCL’s boundaries, and currently more than 30 activity programmes. UCL Advances helps anyone who wants to start, grow or learn about business through training, networking and support.

UCL Business PLC (UCLB) is a leading technology transfer company, which supports and commercialises research and innovations arising from UCL. UCLB has a successful track record and strong reputation for identifying and protecting promising new technologies and innovations from UCL academics.

It invests directly in development projects to maximise the potential of the research and manages the commercialisation process of technologies from the laboratory to the market-ready stage. UCLB supports the university’s Grand Challenges of increasing UCL’s positive impact on contribution to Global Health, Sustainable Cities, Intercultural Interaction and Human Wellbeing.

UCLB helps to develop UCL’s innovations from the wide range of research carried out across UCL. Through licencing technologies, creating businesses and utilising UCL’s specialist subsidiaries to develop products, UCLB supports and promotes the development of UCL’s intellectual property to deliver positive benefits for all.

UCL Consultants was established by UCL to bring its academics together with national and international clients, providing access to the university’s leading-edge expertise and world-class facilities.

UCL Consultants offers a one-stop office for academics wishing to carry out consultancy work, providing comprehensive contractual, tendering and administrative support, enabling UCL staff to ensure timely, high-quality delivery to meet clients’ requirements.

It has extensive experience in working with a wide variety of clients including multi-national, governmental organisations, space agencies, international companies and SMEs.

UCL Consultants excels at bringing together our experts with those who are seeking to access the fund of excellence that is the academic body at UCL. We aim to provide a service to our internal and external clients that reflects and enhances the world-leading reputation of UCL.

UCL Corporate Partnerships develops and manages successful long-term relationships between industry and UCL, and responds to corporate and academic needs through tailored partnerships, high-value research initiatives and global leadership projects. Corporate partnerships deliver innovation advantages to industry, enhance the international reputation of companies and generate sustainable revenue and benefits to the university.

UCL currently works with large multi-national companies in energy and resources, telecommunications and information technologies, transport and construction, as well as with smaller companies in art, advertising, communication, imaging and entertainment.