A virtual approach to historical scientific instruments

Nowadays the acquisition of 3D models of fragile and unique archaeological and historical pieces has become a routine activity. After the exhibition of ancient scientific instruments “La sapienza è figliola della sperienzia”, held in Milano Bicocca University in 2015, we applied this technique to the most relevant available objects (mainly those coming from the Volta’s laboratory), in order to build a virtual and interactive library where the functioning of the devices and their physical principles can be showed and exploited without involving any manipulation of the instruments. The 3D reconstruction was obtained by using 3D photogrammetry, acquiring the images with a Canon 100D camera. The dimensioned model was reconstructed using the Agisoft Photoscan and Meshlab software. The main challenge in this kind of measure is due to the presence of reflective surfaces, mainly those of brass and glass components, such as lenses and magnifiers. We succeeded in overcoming such difficulties by using a diffuse lighting to avoid reflections of direct light and spraying a layer of cyclododecane over the transparent parts to allow a detailed acquisition of their morphology. The resulting models will be exploited in virtual exhibitions during scientific and didactics initiatives and Open days events and will be part of the “Progetto Lauree Scientifiche” and “Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro” to promote the dissemination of the scientific knowledge in secondary schools.