19th Century Nantucket Harbor Visualization

The overarching goal of this continuing research project has been to create a 360-degree visualization in virtual reality that would play in a virtual reality device similar to a binocular viewer, which enables museumgoers to see what the Nantucket harbor looked like in the early 1900s from the virtual point of view of the rooftop of the Nantucket Historical Association Whaling Museum in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Our research team collected source materials, including existing maps, aerial photographs, and photography of the Nantucket harbor. The team visited Nantucket Island and met with experts of the island's history to begin mapping out a digital 3D environment. The team shaped an initial digital 3D simulation of the harbor. Team members created and leveraged digital 3D models of various buildings, structures and vessels and organized those into a digital 3D environment. Then, the team created 360-degree renderings of the simulated environment and began testing the experience on mobile devices and virtual reality headsets. 19th Century Nantucket Harbor Visualization