[HN Gopher] Interactive tour of James Clerk Maxwell's house
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       Interactive tour of James Clerk Maxwell's house
        
       Author : joebig
       Score  : 59 points
       Date   : 2023-12-15 10:31 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (clerkmaxwellfoundation.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (clerkmaxwellfoundation.org)
        
       | joebig wrote:
       | The online tour of renowned physicist Maxwell's house in
       | Edinburgh. UI is responsive & attractive. Lots of trivia and
       | tidbits scattered about the house like Easter eggs to click on!
        
       | gizajob wrote:
       | On my android phone this is like touring Maxwell's house on DMT
       | while drunk. The image is spinning round like crazy and hugely
       | over-sensitive. Enjoyable though
        
         | noSyncCloud wrote:
         | Disable the gyro controls (open the settings at bottom left and
         | tap on the cellphone icon). Then you can navigate normally.
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | An interactive tour of the JCMB would be somewhat pedestrian.
       | Presumably a tour of the DHT ends with asbestos and a leaky
       | rooftop view
        
         | parenthesis wrote:
         | The David Hume Tower has been renamed 40 George Square.
        
       | lelag wrote:
       | This type of 360 photo media experience will soon be replaced by
       | 3d gaussian / Nerf realtime render as demonstrated by the Smerf
       | project which was trending yesterday:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38632492
       | 
       | Add a VR viewer and the experience will start to be really close
       | to seeing the real thing...
       | 
       | I wonder if, at some point, there might not be a push back from
       | museum and tourist attractions against using too immersive
       | virtual experience for fear of hurting the number of actual
       | visitors. (Although I guess, they could just charge for the
       | virtual access to make up for an eventual loss).
        
       | codecalec wrote:
       | I've actually done some volunteer work at the James Clerk Maxwell
       | house. The people who run it are great and love to show people
       | around if you want an in-person tour. Just email and they can
       | organise a time.
        
         | drcongo wrote:
         | Did you get to meet that excellent dog that's in the hallway
         | when you enter this tour?
        
           | arethuza wrote:
           | I hope the dog's name is "Daftie" :-)
        
       | imagine99 wrote:
       | I would really like to know what the whole tech stack was to
       | produce this: Which camera system was used to record these images
       | and what platform they used for building the 3D experience?
       | 
       | The pictures must be of insane resolution, as you can zoom in to
       | read even the smallprint on all the posters clearly (imagine
       | Google StreetView like this). And I didn't really notice any
       | stitching, tripods etc.
       | 
       | Also they have cleverly embedded video animations in some of the
       | rooms 360 degree images. These were clearly recorded separately
       | but I still haven't fully figured out how they added them. Very
       | well done and indeed probably almost as good as being there in
       | person.
        
         | everly wrote:
         | You could produce this using one of several 360deg cameras
         | (e.g. Ricoh Theta, Insta360 X3) for the images, and then using
         | 3D Vista to create the tour experience, embedded media, etc.
        
         | zoogeny wrote:
         | I have a friend in real estate who uses matterport [1] to do
         | something similar to this. They have tools to do animations
         | very close to what is happening here. Even the circular cursor
         | looks similar.
         | 
         | 1. https://matterport.com/
        
       | benzofuran wrote:
       | If you're ever in Edinburgh, this is an excellent place to visit
       | and spend an afternoon. One of the funniest parts was upon
       | walking in the door, the gentleman who greeted me asked "What
       | kind of engineer are you?" Very worthwhile.
        
         | arethuza wrote:
         | And of course, everyone _should_ go to Edinburgh....
         | 
         |  _But Edinburgh is a mad god's dream
         | 
         | Fitful and dark,
         | 
         | Unseizable in Leith
         | 
         | And wildered by the Forth,
         | 
         | But irresistibly at last
         | 
         | Cleaving to sombre heights
         | 
         | Of passionate imagining
         | 
         | Till stonily,
         | 
         | From soaring battlements,
         | 
         | Earth eyes Eternity_
        
           | joebig wrote:
           | Where is this from? I find Edinburgh cemetery to be a wierdly
           | welcoming tourist attraction.
        
             | arethuza wrote:
             | It's the poem _Edinburgh_ by Hugh MacDiarmid:
             | 
             | https://nishsrivastava.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/edinburgh-
             | by...
        
         | dboreham wrote:
         | Shamefully, I grew up in Edinburgh, am an EE, my Dad was an EE,
         | also lived in Edinburgh, and I never knew there was a Maxwell
         | house there. I suppose I assumed he only lived on his estate or
         | in Cambridge. There's a statue of him at the end of George St
         | also.
        
         | oh_sigh wrote:
         | Does he ask everyone, or do you just have the je ne sais quoi
         | of an engineer?
        
       | crispyambulance wrote:
       | It's very stylish and tasteful!
       | 
       | It looks like the house of someone who was very wealthy by at
       | least today's standards, but I see that he came from a
       | comfortable but not rich family.
       | 
       | Curious, wouldn't a home like that be considered wealthy?
       | Certainly it looks like something that would need staff to keep
       | up when it was a household.
        
         | maccard wrote:
         | Those houses PS2-3m+. Here's [0] the first one I found in the
         | same area-ish. [0]
         | https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139059236#/?channel=R...
        
       | lfmunoz4 wrote:
       | Looks very inaccurate. When I go there I would have expected to
       | be able to experience the house as James Clerk Maxwell would
       | have, and therefore give me more of a sense of getting to know
       | him by experiencing what he would have experienced on a daily
       | basis.
       | 
       | Why would I go to his house to look at posters giving
       | information, makes no sense I could look at that information from
       | home no need to go all the way to his actual house.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | I'd like to know if the pictures on the wall were there (and in
       | the same place) when he lived there.
        
         | joebig wrote:
         | The place has been remodeled as a museum. So, authenticity as
         | in true-to-his-time is evidently somewhat diminished. But
         | plenty of info pertaining to provenance is provided upon
         | clicking the wall pictures. The portraits of Maxwell's numerous
         | scientific contemporaries will obviously would not have been
         | there during his years.
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-15 23:01 UTC)