DOWNTOWN — The Field Museum is giving fans a chance to explore mummies while staying at home.
Software called Inside Explorer is available Friday on the gaming app Steam. People will be able to use the software to look at detailed 3D models of the interior of the Field Museum’s mummies, according to the museum.
The models were made using CT scans or numerous X-ray images that have been combined that show the insides of the mummies.
More 3D models from the Field will be released throughout the summer, including those of meteorites and insects preserved in amber, according to the Field.
Museums are allowed to open under the Phase 4 stage Chicago entered Friday, but the Field said it is still working on safety protocols and has not yet announced a reopening date.
In the meantime, the Field hopes the models can “provide an immersive way for the public to access the specimens from the Field’s collections,” according to the museum.
JP Brown, the Field Museum’s Regenstein conservator, worked with 3D visualization company Interspectral to create the models, according to the Field. Interspectral’s developers said in a blog post they hope their tool is used to provoke curiosity.
They want to “reach an entirely new audience and hopefully evoke interest for natural science, biology and history among people who are usually not exposed to this kind of scientific content,” they said.
Brown hopes the models can be used in classrooms.
“Every middle school does a unit on Ancient Egyptian civilization, and this is 100 percent the best way to study mummies,” Brown said.
The museum’s mummies exhibit toured the United States from 2013 to 2018.
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