It’s early Monday morning. You really don’t want to work. Well let me help you out. Grab that cup of coffee, grab your mouse, and get ready to play. Amy Scott-Murray is a Ph.D. student at Aberdeen University who researches how digital visualization techniques can be applied in marine science. In her latest project, Scott-Murray uses a ton of photographs and specialized software to create photorealistic 3D models of animals. The uses for this are limitless. I am excited about tools like this for scientific collaboration. I can send this to a say a octopus expert who could look at this and provide an identification, all more quickly and cheaply than me shipping a specimen to them. Check out two of her reconstructions below and visit her webpage for many more.
Snailfish
by Amy Scott-Murray
on Sketchfab
Octopus
by Amy Scott-Murray
on Sketchfab
Impressive! Hopefully this will save many animals from being removed from their natural habitat and used as specimens.