UNC and UVA researchers’ model on display at New Orleans Museum of Art exhibition.

Researchers from the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have created a virtual model of Thomas Jefferson’s library using 3rdTech’s DeltaSphere-3000 3D Scene Digitizer. This “Virtual Monticello” is being shown at the New Orleans Museum of ART (NOMA) as part of the exhibition “Jefferson’s America & Napoleon’s France”, which runs now through August 31 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase.

The DeltaSphere-3000 Scene Digitizer is a small, portable 3D digitizer that can scan a room in less than 20 minutes – and its optional color capture is ideal for creating photo-realistic models of the real world. “Creating a model of a real scene can be a lengthy process – and making it appear realistic is very difficult”, said Dr. Anselmo Lastra, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at UNC-CH. “The DeltaSphere makes fast, photo-realistic modeling of the real-world possible.”

Additional information about the “Virtual Monticello” project is available online at http://www.cs.unc.edu/~ibr/projects/NOMA/index.html and http://www.cs.virginia.edu/Monticello/. Additional information about the DeltaSphere-3000 Scene Digitizer is available at http://www.3rdTech.com/DeltaSphere.htm.