overly complex user interface. For ease of use, rotation is limited to a single axis, and when zooming and clipping the volume, that axis is always automatically centered on the screen.

Narrative. While adhering to the design principles described in the earlier section on interaction, the system must be able to support narratives, sometimes at multiple levels—the narrative of the case being shown, as well as the narrative of the scientific discovery and the user’s own experience of discovering the content.

At the heart of the interactive narra-
tive exploration are the results of the
work conducted after the capture and
reconstruction of an object or body
when curators analyzed and annotated
the volumetric data. They can make
appear in the different layers, provid-
ing the user with contextual informa-
tion, as well as details about particular
findings. This information enables
guided exploration through the data-
sets, as hints to other points of interest
can be given.

Lessons Learned

One key to the successful installation of
Gebelein Man is careful iterative inter-
action between the museums and the
development team of programmers,
modelers, and interaction designers.
For example, in the design process for
the Gebelein Man, we closely collabo-
rated with the British Museum cura-
torial teams and the Interpretation
and Learning Departments, as well
as access managers; see Figure 8 for
discoveries that need to be included,
sometimes leading to the definition of
a region or point of interest and a de-
scription of what findings have been
made. The curators provide the fun-
damental scientific attribution to the
data, documenting it such that exhibit
producers can tailor the narrative and
adapt the content to the public audi-
ence; see Figure 7 for an example. It is
important for the software developer to
realize that the narratives are implicitly
embedded in the whole application,
from visual settings to enabled interac-
tion modes. For explicit information,
we employ the notion of volumetric
information hot spots that provide
contextualized information about the
scanned artifacts and subjects. Dur-
ing exploration, information spots

Figure 9. The digitization of Neswaiu included multiple CT scans of the body as well as photogrammetry and laser scanning of the wooden sarcophagi in which he was buried. On the visualization table, both the textured polygonal models and the volume-rendered remains of the mummy are shown as different layers that can be peeled away, one at a time.

Left photo courtesy of Ove Kaneberg/Medelhavsmuseet; right image courtesy of Interactive Institute Swedish IC T/Interspectral.

Figure 10. Reproducing hidden artifacts is another benefit of the process of digitizing museum collections. Here, a falcon amulet from the Neswaiu mummy in Stockholm is shown. It was produced through inexpensive 3D printing of a plastic model used to create a mold in which a gold-plated bronze copy was cast.

Image and photo courtesy of Interactive Institute Swedish IC T/Interspectral.