Glyptics Portrait Generator

Abstract

Glyptics is the art of engraving on precious and semi-precious gems. The resulting engraved gems, also called intaglios or cameos, were considered a luxury in a variety of ancient civilizations. The University of Tartu Art Museum planned an exhibition, dedicated to that art. The Museum has requested the development of an interactive exhibit for its visitors to create virtual engraved gems with their faces on them. The main result of this thesis is the development of an interactive exhibit that lets visitors of the University of Tartu Art Museum or any users with web-cameras generate a virtual model of an engraved gem with their face on it. This generator was being developed with a stationary exhibit with a mounted depth camera in mind, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was later repurposed to work with any camera even from home. The thesis focuses on the development of the algorithm, that produces a 3D rendering of one’s face in the glyptic style. The process consists of two main steps: 1) creating a 3D reconstruction of the user’s face, 2) rendering it as an engraved gem. The thesis also covers the research of properties of different materials, used for engraved gems, for their representation by the means of computer graphics. A preliminary user testing took place in January, which demonstrated visitors’ interest in the development. This is covered and analysed in this thesis for understanding the main problems users had during the testing and consequently proposing solutions to tackle them.