AR-Tours and Museum Textile Services began talks of using digital modalities to restore physical artifacts at the 2023 NEMA conference in Portland, ME. Since this initial meeting, AR-Tours has began working on the restoration of an antique ball gown that MTS didn’t have any current plans for. Over the course of a few weeks, Joseph from AR-Tours had began drafting and actualizing the dress restoration.

This was completed through an initial round of photogrammetry, rebuilding the 3D model of the dress and completing the digital touch-ups, and giving the dress a simple but neat animation. The animation gives the user the option of just viewing the physical dress through their phone screen, or watching the restored 3D model materialize in front of them. Joseph and Garrett then worked with the MTS staff on-site to make sure the anchoring of the dress in real time was properly overlaying, and giving the user a quality experience when viewing.

We thank our partners MTS for giving us the opportunity to work on this artifact, and for their help, accommodation, and knowledge as we implemented our product.