PhotoRobot - from still images to 360 spins and 3D

Multicam and turning table

The PhotoRobot is a multi-camera system for 360 spins and 3D. It captures multi-row images simultaneously with three cameras in three different angles.

At the moment the PhotoRobot is placed in the "Black Box" in the cellar of the X wing of Otakaari 1. It is mainly used for digitizing the university archive collections but is also used for other projects.

Digitizing Aalto University Archives ceramics collection

Aalto University holds nearly 5000 ceramic and glass artifacts dating back to the 60s, carefully cataloged and stored in the archive. These artifacts were made by students and teachers and were collected mainly by professor Kyllikki Salmenhaara. The artifacts were meant to be used in teaching but not many know about its existence. 

In 2020-2021 nearly 1000 artifacts were digitized in high resolution with the PhotoRobot to be able to create spins and 3D models for present day students and researchers. This will make it easier to study these objects carefully from anywhere and hopefully wake interest also among others interested in ceramics techniques and development during the late 20th century.

The digitalized ceramics can be found in Aaltoarkisto Finna

Testing the PhotoRobot with Aalto rock collection

The School of Engineering turned part of the Aalto’s physical rock and mineral sample collection into a digital online learning asset with a self built photorobot in 2019 (read more). We compared the results which were very similar in quality.

Interested to know more?

Are you working with a project that would benefit from digitizing high quality 360 spin images or are you generally interested in the technique behind the PhotoRobot? Please be in contact with Aalto Archives [email protected] or directly with Jason Selvarajan who is operating the PhotoRobot and the 3D digitalization at the archives.