Introducing 3DBigDataSpace: Transforming the Future of 3D Digital Cultural Heritage
The availability of high-quality 3D content has been a limiting factor for the growth of Extended Reality (XR) and 3D applications, particularly within cultural heritage sectors. Addressing this challenge, the new “3D Big Data to enrich the European Data Space for Cultural Heritage” (short: 3DBigDataSpace) project is set to revolutionize the accessibility and usability of 3D data for cultural heritage, education, and tourism sectors across Europe.
3DBigDataSpace in a Nutshell
Starting on 1 February 2025 and with a duration time of 18 months, 3DBigDataSpace aims to significantly enhance the amount of high-quality 3D content available in the European Data Space for Cultural Heritage. This will be achieved by aggregating datasets from various providers, establishing a stable and long-term Europe-wide storage solution for 3D models, and enhancing the data quality through advanced AI enrichment technologies. The project is also focused on developing new tools and methods to enable the use of this vast collection of 3D models in Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and 4D world applications.
A strong in-person Kick-off in Trento
As it is customary, during the first month of the project the consortium met in person to align and plan the activities of the next months. What was special about this meeting in Trento on the 17th and 18th of February, was that it was co-located with the kick-off of another "sister project", XRculture, and with the initial conference of a key initiative in the area of cultural heritage, the Online Competence Centre in 3D for Cultural Heritage (3D-4CH) (read here for more info).
Key Objectives of 3DBigDataSpace:
- Increase High-Quality 3D Content: Aggregating over 50,000 3D models into the common European data space for cultural heritage, with more than 1,000 models available via Europeana.eu.
- Establish Europe-Wide 3D Data Storage: Testing a public 3D data storage infrastructure based on European data repositories, ensuring the availability and accessibility of 3D datasets.
- AI-Driven Data Enrichment: Testing and deploying AI data enrichment pipelines to improve content classification, location retrieval, and metadata quality, enhancing findability and reusability.
- Develop Innovative Tools for 3D and 4D Applications: Creating a suite of Europe-wide usable tools, including 3D viewers, AR viewers, and 4D world views to foster new experiences in digital cultural heritage.
- Demonstration and Validation: Conducting demo cases in museums, heritage routes, and local networks to showcase the capabilities of 3D re-use and enhance user engagement through educational and outreach activities.
- Capacity Building and Training: Implementing a multi-layer training and capacity-building program involving over 200 students, with the goal of reaching more than 4,000 scholars and professionals and engaging 20,000 individuals through demo cases.
Looking ahead
IN2 will play a key role in the technical coordination of the 3DBigDataSpace project, ensuring that the ambitious project goals will be reached. We are also excited to collaborate with partners in developing innovative reuse scenarios of the 3D content using XR. Stay tuned for our future updates!