Real Earth Models is at the forefront of innovation in visualization with 3D PhotoReal™ technology in facilitating the development of 3D Virtual Museums. At REM, exploring a 3D Virtual Museum means being able to experience the majesty of Mount Rushmore, embrace the beauty of the historic Sacred Rock of Machu Picchu in a tropical mountain forest, or indulge in any of the magnificent Splendors of the World. Our team of innovators is working to enable the virtual museum visitor to encounter interactive, immersive, 3D environments from a personal computer.

REM’s 3D Virtual Museum experience goes far beyond an ordinary flythrough tour. Our 3D PhotoReal™ technology provides the casual observer an opportunity for interactive enrichment. Likewise, the serious student easily becomes a participant in active research with the ability to zoom in for close examination, careful measurement, comparison studies, or in-depth analysis of research on a chosen subject.

A 3D Virtual Museum that brings the observer or student closer to treasures from prominent museums around the world is possible now. The imminent potential for 3D visualization is astounding, and REM’s PhotoReal™ technology is bringing a new dimension to remote visualization. Personal computers with 3D projection within the hardware of the user are also presently emerging to further enhance the 3D Virtual Museum experience of today.

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3D Virtual Museums enable ease of exploration in regions often inaccessible due to long distance, costly travel expense, or lengthy travel time. 3D Virtual Museums enable exploration of regions in which steep, rugged terrain makes traveling difficult, even dangerous. Some locations, particularly where sensitive ecosystems are present, provide limited access that prohibit visits by the general public.

3D Virtual Museums effectively remove all limiting factors that may be associated with field trip adventures. Study and enrichment have the flexibility of a completely self-guided format that encourages independent study. Optional guided tour formats are also available for a more structured style of study. Remote regions and ancient relics, when scanned and processed using 3D PhotoReal™ Modeling technology, can be viewed in actual size and dimension, from any angle and in perfect scale, from a computer.

Whatever you want to see; wherever you want to go; you are there, virtually, through interactive, PhotoReal™ technology. From your home computer, you can:

• Tour a bat cave from the bat’s perspective while studying the cave’s physical properties.
• Conduct a geological and biological study of karst topography and sinkholes.
• Zoom in closely to examine the jaws of a saber-tooth tiger with its surprisingly delicate bite.
• Discover the intricate surface of the footpads of the gecko, comprised of thousands of minute hair-like structures.

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• Cost-effective. Travel is costly, whether to a distant country or continent, or to remote mountainous areas where many geologic features of interest can be found. PhotoReal™ 3D mapping and display capabilities eliminates these expenses.
• Comprehensive. The observer or student can be in only one area at a time during actual field trips. However, with Virtual Field Trips based on REM’s precise PhotoReal™ data, students can walk, or flythrough, examine, and measure several stratum sections, or objects from different museums, in a single day. Comparative studies of two different sites, side-by-side, impossible in the real world, can provide far greater understanding of the subjects than can real world visits separated by kilometers/miles and weeks of travel.
• Details. It may be impossible for an observer or student to investigate every part of a museum, historic site, or geological cross section during an actual field trip. Distance, difficult terrain, and lack of time mean that some areas simply cannot be visited in person. The Virtual Field Trip overcomes such obstacles. By utilizing 3D PhotoReal™ technology with view and display tools, one can move, rotate, and tilt an object or outcrop as needed to gain complete access, that is, fly around it virtually. The observer or student will be guaranteed not to miss an antiquity of interest from a museum, or an important geological feature contained in an outcrop.
• Accuracy. Taking measurements of the length, depth, and orientation of a museum piece or a geological feature are important field trip exercises for students and vital to researchers. Information on cave dating is often determined only by measurement and analysis of the available on-site information, such as organic debris or broken rocks. The accuracy of digital measurement in 3D PhotoReal™ modeled images is far more accurate than that obtained by tape, compass, marker, and human eyes.
• Consistency. Any object on the earth changes from time to time. Outcrops are no exception. Rocks crack, decay, and weather. Land erodes and slides. This makes it difficult for professors to locate stratum sections to demonstrate particular geological features. Over time, once-clear geological features may fade out. Digitally mapped images using PhotoReal™ technology can provide permanent geological records.

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