A repository for 3D model production and interpretation in culture and beyond

In order to support the work of researchers in the production, processing and interpretation of complex digital objects and the dissemination of valuable and diverse information to a broad spectrum of audience there is need for an integrated high performance environment that will combine knowledge base features with content management and information retrieval (IR) technologies. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of an integrated repository to ingest, store, manipulate, and export 3D Models, their related digital objects and metadata and to enable efficient access, use, reuse and preservation of the information, ensuring referential and semantic integrity. The repository design is based on an integrated coherent conceptual schema that models complex metadata regarding provenance information, structured models, formats, compatibility of 3D models, historical events and real world objects. This repository is not implemented just to be a storage location for digital objects; it is meant to be a working integrated platform for distant users who participate in a process chain consisting of several steps. A first prototype, in the field of Cultural Heritage, has already been implemented in the context of 3D-COFORM project, an integrated research project funded by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013, no 231809) and the results are satisfactory, proving the feasibility of the design decisions which are absolutely new, ambitious, and extraordinarily generic for e-science.