ResultsThe initial scans were made at the Suburban Baths, which were located adjacent to the ancient waterfront. These baths were open to the public until recently. Unfortunately, however, the authorities have had to close them to visitors due to the deteriorating condition of the structure. The image below shows the outside of the baths (the rightmost building). Note the level of the ground at the top of the photo. It helps to illustrate the magnitude of the excavation.
So far, with the diligent effort of the scientists from Akhet, we have collected data from most of the rooms in the baths. The model is still not complete, however, because processing is a difficult job. Most of the rooms still lack color data. Below is a plan of the structure (left) and a top-down view of the 3D model. The circles are locations where the DeltaSphere was located, and the supporting tripod and mounting structure prevent data from being collected. In many of the rooms those holes were closed using data from other capture locations, but some data still need to be collected.
The image below shows a view, from the outside of the model, of three rooms.
Here is a model of one room, with a cut plane to show only the lower portion of the walls. The next few screen shots were made by Ascanio d'Andrea.
A similar view of the Laconicum, the cylindrical room that you can see at the middle right of the floor plan. It was apparently used in a fashion similar to modern steam rooms.
A top-down view of the room with measure lines. The DeltaSphere software enables a scientist to measure the distance between any two points (in 3D space) of the model.
View of the same room looking straight up. There's a small hole in the ceiling.
A screenshot of the 3D model of another room. Note the figures in relief on the wall.
The next image is another screen shot of the 3D model, from the Frigidarium. This image is labeled with references to the Herculaneum research database, which is used to document the condition of the site. Note that the wall is missing much of the plaster.
One thing that we would like to do in the future is to make a 3D model using images from the past as textures. This would give us some idea of the changes that have occurred over time due to deterioration of the wall paintings. The next two images, made by Ascanio from two 3D models, show a part of the same wall. The first model was texture mapped with photos made recently. The second 3D model was texture mapped with an image from the Herculaneum archives, likely made in the 1930s.
Finally, a photo of three of us setting up for a scan. From left to right, Massimo Brizzi, Anselmo Lastra, and Ascanio d'Andrea.
Anselmo Lastra.
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