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Multidisciplinary Projects

Two multidisciplinary projects had a more technical or methodological scope. One of the project aimed at the provision of an open-source solution for real-time acquisition and processing of specimens using a robotic arm as well as the development of a 3D-viewer. The other project aimed to help 6 institutions to migrate their digitized collections into the collection management system Specify. A total of 84'400 specimens from all disciplines were processed and databased as part of this project.

Developing a new milestone in automated 2D+/3D imaging methodologies for natural history collections
_{Gressin, Adrien; Muth, Xavier; Kunze, Marc (HEIG-VD); Le Callennec, Benoît; Tièche, François (HE-ARC); Cavin, Lionel (Natural History Museum Geneva); Gattolliat, Jean-Luc (Naturéum, Lausanne); Litman, Jessica (Natural History Museum Neuchâtel); Mennecart, Bastien (Natural History Museum Basel); Alvarez, Nadir (University of Geneva)}

Summary

The huge diversity and size of Swiss natural history collections involve real challenges in terms of 2D and 3D documentation, whether it be for conservation, heritage or scientific purposes. Today, no imaging tool is sufficiently versatile to accomodate the high variability of textures and shapes and to process large quantities of specimens efficiently and autonomously.

This project jointly involves four natural history museums and two engineering schools and aims to provide new adaptive and automated solutions, gathered under the acronym MultiDigitaliS and addressing the following aspects:

The provision of an open source solution for real-time acquisition and processing of specimens using a robotic arm.
The development of a 3D viewer that will allow the ergonomic navigation of oriented images acquired at full resolution and to extract multi-stereoscopic measurements usable for morphometric studies.
The development of an autonomous multi-specimen acquisition tool (entomology).
The 3D digitization of fluid collections without extracting them from their containers.
The contribution of multi-spectral data (infrared, ultraviolet) to complete the visible spectrum data.

At the end of the project, a workshop will be proposed to all interested partners within SCNAT, in order to share the techniques and results of these developments.

Outreach

Mathys A, Pollet Y, Gressin A, Muth X, Brecko J, Dekoninck W, et al. (2024) Sphaeroptica: A tool for pseudo-3D visualization and 3D measurements on arthropods. PLoS ONE 19(10): e0311887. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0311887

Specify CH - Enhancing databasing for Natural History institutions
_{Alexis Beck (Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Genève), Madeleine Geiger (Naturmuseum St. Gallen), Bärbel Koch (Museo cantonale di storia naturale), Christian Püntener (Musée d'histoire naturelle Fribourg), Christian Sprecher (Naturama Aargau), Nicolas Margraf (MUZOO – Musée d’histoire naturelle de La Chaux-de-Fonds), Holger Frick (Naturhistorisches Museum Basel)}

Results

243'325 data imported into Specify (February 2025).

Summary

This project aims to help 6 institutions of various sizes to migrate their digitized collections into a state-of-the-art collection management system (Specify). To do so, an IT consultant will be hired over an 18-months period. He will rely on the support of the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève who already went through a similar process. As a result, about 450'000 specimens will be migrated into Specify. The software's database is built on Darwin Core as a standard. A step forward for the institutions to have their data in the future SwissNatColl [former SVNHC].