Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Three-dimensional (3D) minerals and rocks in the form of interactive, engaging, and immersive experiences are of paramount importance to the geoscience community, researchers, students, and philomaths. Moreover, the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) crisis affecting our society in the spring of 2020 highlighted the importance of 3D material in geoscience education — compared to 2D images, the three-dimensional models provide a better way to learn and to recognize different minerals and rocks, properties, textures, etc. This paper seeks to provide a comprehensive method to create an interactive scientific, learning, and cultural heritage environment in the field of Geosciences. In this paper, we overcome most of the Structure-from-Motion - Multi-View Stereo (SfM-MVS) photogrammetry limitations, where samples with a transparent, translucent, or glossy surface are a real challenge for the feature detection algorithms of the SfM workflow. Correct lighting setup, the usage of cross-polarized light photogrammetry workflow, anti-reflection coating spray and post-processing steps are the essential ingredients for an enhanced photogrammetric study. The main output of this research consists of a comprehensive virtual 3D collection of minerals and rocks which are available online via the Sketchfab repository of the Museum of Mineralogy and Petrography “Grigore Cobălcescu”  (https://sketchfab.com/MineralogyPetrographyMuseum).