DPI-8X at MIT: Exploring Ancient Engineering to Inform the Future

Chris Ahern, Marketing Manager - DotProduct Boston
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Materials in Art, Archaeology and Architecture program takes students to Italy for unique fieldwork experience with the DotProduct DPI-8X.

The MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) deployed the DPI-8X handheld 3D scanner in Italy this summer as part of the Materials in Art, Architecture and Archaeology (ONE-MA3) curriculum. The video above provides an excellent overview of the many projects covered on the trip, with footage of the DPI-8X highlighted in the first minute.

On site at the archaeological ruins in Priverno, students used the DPI-8X to document interior architectural details of ancient Roman thermal baths, capturing degrading structures in high resolution full color 3D detail to be combined with larger scale aerial drone footage of the site. Please see below for some of the point cloud data, both from the drones and DPI-8X:

Using the DPI-8X, students were able to document the interior structures of these Roman thermal baths in full color 3D, including impressive stone arches that have stood the test of time. Analyzing this data can shed light onto the design decisions made centuries ago that have held these rooms together over all the years. Please see below for some images of the capture session and resulting data, shown in Dot3D Edit:

Back in the museum, students also took the opportunity to scan a mosaic that had been excavated and restored from the dig site for display. Combining technologies and concepts, the idea behind this project was to create an accurate digital representation of the preserved mosaic that could be viewed back in the original archaeological location using augmented reality technology. AR could very well be the future of museum experiences and handheld 3D scan data can readily bring real-world color content into this platform. Please see below for several more images from the project, including the resulting data of the mosaic:

Additional scanning projects from the trip included 3D capture of a sarcophagus in a restoration workshop, scanning of stone sculptures in a museum, and documentation of other structurally and historically relevant sites. Below are some great images of those sessions:

We are glad to partner with MIT on such exciting coursework. The overlap of various disciplines is especially relevant to the DPI-8X and its many applications. From structural engineering to archaeology and heritage preservation, the ONE-MA3 curriculum encompasses a great mix of use cases for handheld 3D data capture. I look forward to seeing further exploration of these technologies and overlapping applications from MIT in the future.

For more on ONE-MA3 and the trip to Italy, please click here for an article from MIT News.