Microscopia: An Interactive Museum in VR and AR

Overview

An ongoing project, my Honors thesis at the University of Maine is an attempt at bringing people closer to the tiny organisms living all around us; from what we call “pests” to what we can hardly even see with the naked eye. Using a process called photogrammetry, I’m able to take pictures captured with a scanning electron microscope and turn them into 3D models using a program called Reality Capture.

Here’s what a tardigrade looks like to the naked eye.
And here’s what it looks like through a scanning electron microscope.

Here is the rough 3D model of the tardigrade created in Reality Capture.

Once all the models have been created and optimized, they will be placed in a VR environment in Unity in which the user can walk around them and activate audio clips about certain parts of their anatomy. Additionally, they will be made accessible in an AR companion app published to the Apple App Store and Google Play store.

AR Mobile App

Using Unity and the Vuforia SDK, I’m developing a companion app in which users can take the museum home with them. The current development build is fully functional on iOS and Android.

The Microscopia app includes two AR viewing modes: Card and Surface. Card Mode projects the models onto organism “trading cards”, which will be handed out at my thesis defense and further exhibitions, while Surface Mode projects models onto any given surface plane selected.