Outlook Magazine - Fall 2025

Enhancing Cultural Heritage 3D modeling software revolutionizes online museum experiences

“The big thing that our software does is it allows you to process those photographs and then builds a compact representation of what the material of the object looks like so that we can create new, inter active, dynamic 3D renderings where the user can change the viewpoint, change the lighting,” Tetzlaff explained. The resulting 3D models can be rotated by the user, with virtual light playing off the details of the surfaces, whether they are dull or dazzling, giving a much more realistic representation of the item. These models can be shared widely, helping scholars and the public study and appreciate price less objects even if they can’t see them in person. Computer science graduate Luke Denney (’25) , who put in hundreds of hours on Kintsugi 3D, said the project has been invaluable in preparing him for his future career, in part because working on Kintsugi 3D required him to become familiar with a massive codebase. He expects that skill will be beneficial in his new job at IBM in Rochester, Min nesota. In addition to navigating thousands of lines of code and gathering user feedback to improve soft ware features, Denney said the project helped him learn to solve problems independently. “When I’d run into a roadblock and have the temptation to go ask for help, I thought, ‘Wait, I want to give myself more time to figure this out before asking.’ And most of the time I was successful with that, so that felt really good,” he said.

S

oftware developed through faculty and student collaboration at UW-Stout is helping museums around the world preserve pieces of cultural heritage for future generations by creating 3D models that accurately capture every detail of the color, texture and bright

ness of objects. Kintsugi 3D is the creation of Michael Tetzlaff, an assistant professor of computer science, and more than a dozen UW-Stout students in a variety of disciplines, whose collaboration exemplifies the applied learning that is at the core of UW-Stout's mission. Their software has been used by notable institutions worldwide to create models of artifacts in their collections, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, Norway; the National Gallery of Art in Wash ington, D.C.; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). “Documenting the art is incredibly important, and we want to get it out in the world however we can,” explained Mia Lead Collections Photographer Charles Walbridge, an avid user of the software. “The Kintsugi project has helped us be able to share more accurate 3D models that we’ve been making in the museum.” While existing photogrammetry software – which combines hundreds of photos from different angles to create a 3D model — can effectively record many aspects of an object’s appearance, it falls short in capturing the essence of materials and textures, Tet zlaff said. In particular, photogrammetry software struggles with specularity — the reflectivity of a sur face and how it varies — particularly with objects that are shiny or metallic. Kintsugi 3D solves this problem by creating much more true-to-life render ings, capturing the sparkle of a bit of gold leaf or the depth of a brush stroke in oil paint.

Make a gift to Stout today to further these important efforts at UWStout.edu/Give

19

Outlook 2025