Purdue and Indiana University researchers commemorated the 65th anniversary of D-Day by releasing the first version of a 3-D, interactive model of the Omaha Beach battlefield.

A demonstration took place at the Advanced Visualization Lab Tuesday, June 2, on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus. The event demonstrated the 3-D model of a key battlefield in the Allied invasion to liberate France on June 6, 1944, and several methods of using the system for learning.

“The model, which includes 3-D pillboxes, beach obstacles, field guns or ships is, in effect, a Web interface,” said Purdue Professor Sorin Adam Matei, its creator and leader of Visible Past, a project developing similar virtual historical sites. “By simply pointing to an object or location of the virtual battlefield, you can call up more information, collaborate with other learners or add new information.”

Matei, an associate professor of communications, is an affiliate of the data visualization center at ITaP  — Purdue's central information technology organization — and ITaP's research-computing arm, the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing. Data visualization staff members and students help develop the D-Day and other Visible Past models.

Students using Virtual Omaha can walk or fly through the model of the beach and the French countryside behind it, taking the perspective of the American or German troops who fought during World War II. Users can inspect troop positions from all angles and information about the digital artifacts encountered can be brought up automatically.

“The really novel aspect of the project is that if another group uses the model while you are visiting it, any information that they add to it will become available to you instantly,” Matei said.

Besides the Web, the Visible Past models can be run in 3-D virtual environments like the three-walled, room-sized system at ITaP's data-visualization facilities. They also work in Google Earth or through free, open-source software for 3-D web-based modeling.

In the near future, people visiting Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, will be able to use an iPhone application, developed by Matei, to access the model and collaborate remotely with others.

“We will have professors delivering a tour to a group in Normandy, while students in Indiana will be able to see and hear through (an immersive virtual environment) what their colleagues see and do in France,” Matei said.

The iPhone application also can be used as a “location-aware” guide for Omaha Beach or any historical site documented by the Visible Past project. When visiting the Roman Forum, for example, information about the nearest building could be sent automatically by Visible Past to the iPhone.

“This is ubiquitous computing, where information searches for you,” Matei said.

Virtual Omaha is one of the more than two dozen 3-D models, including several UNESCO World Heritage sites, that can be used for teaching and collaboration through the Visible Past project. The models — some of which were created collaboratively by a worldwide community of students, scholars and amateur historians — are enhanced with information collected by Purdue students. Among the projects under development are the Roman Forum, the Taj Mahal and the Statue of Liberty.

Writer: Greg Kline, science and technology writer, ITaP, (765) 494-8167, gkline@purdue.edu

Source: Sorin Adam Matei, (317) 416-5807, smatei@purdue.edu

Image caption: A screen shot showing elements of the Virtual Omaha Beach project displayed in a Web browser, including an interactive 3-D model of the battlefield, pictures of some structures left there today and a video clip from the film Saving Private Ryan.

Note: A high-resolution image is available. Contact: Greg Kline, gkline@purdue.edu.

View the Omaha Beach Google Earth Model and Omaha Beach historical details in Google Earth. To experience Visible Past as a teaching environment, both links should be clicked in succession.

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