Autodesk gave a grant to help world renowned Paleontologist Louise Leakey to help develop one of her goals to bring many of the rare fossil specimens in Kenya to the world by the web. The website http://www.Africanfossils.org by Louise Leakey has been updated with several new features since its launch at Autodesk University 2011.

Some of the new features launched this week:

• Select the small blue globes for more information and features on the site
• Many new hominin (your human ancestors) and fauna specimens added to the collection with information on each
• Updated interface graphics including iPad scrolling
• An fossil real-time viewer for desktop browser visitors
• A Google map of the Turkana Basin with fossil discoveries
• A hominin phylogeny chart
• A geological formations chart
• A new backend database structure so that more specifies can be added or edited easily

Please visit http://www.africanfossils.org and explore the site.

The Site Experience:

You enter looking in the Lab with big windows looking out of over the beautiful Kenyan Turkana Basin.

Video Walkthrough:Download AfricanFossils.org walkthrough video 7Mb

You can pan around the lab left and right with your mouse of finger on your iPad exploring different exhibits indicated by the little blue globe icon/glyphs. When you select globes on the tables with the fossils you will launch a fossil view that on desktop browser will allow you a real-time viewing of the specimens along with information about them such as when when and where they were found and their origins and discovery notes.

The fossil viewer.

Here is the Google Map of locations in the Kenyan Turkana Basin launched when clicking the map on the wall in the lab.

How the Fossils were captured in 3D

The fossils were captured in 3D using just a digital camera and then using the Autodesk 123D Catch (formerly known as Project Photofly) which converts the photos to a 3D model which can then be exported as OBJ files for use in other applications like 3ds Max.

It has been an amazing experience to be part of this philanthropic project to bring rare specimens in Kenya digitally to the world to advance Louise’s non-profit goals of sharing the collection with the world helping paleontologists, students & researchers globally with design and reality capture technologies.

The Team

• Louise Leakey World renowned paleontologist based in Kenya
• YANG Deming – Capturing specimens with a digital camera at the National Museum of Kenya
• Max Ehrlich of ME3D – 3D graphics
• Chris Mollomo of Puddlejumpmedia working on all the web features
• Scott Bjelland of the Turkana Basin Institute
• Gregory K Miller and myself Shaan Hurley working on behalf of Autodesk using Autodesk 123D Catch models and project management

Thank you to Autodesk executives Brian Mathews & Amar Hanspal for bringing this project vision to reality.

For more on Louise Leakey and the Turkana Basin Institute please visit:
The Turkana Basin Institute http://www.stonybrook.edu/tbi/

Cheers,
Shaan