Virtual Harbin Hot Springs' Creation (and regarding the "Naked Harbin Ethnography" book - Academic Press @WUaSPress, 2016)
INCREDIBLE replies fr https://t.co/arXwUHEyLm to create #RealisticVirtualHarbin fr https://t.co/EG5TqrloNL -https://t.co/L0fKirvnaL &w #GStreetView w #TimeSlider Fascinating opps for #WUaSstudents, #UniversitiesStudents around world, & #hackers, to create #RealisticVirtualEarth ~
— HarbinBook (@HarbinBook) May 9, 2025
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/WUaSPress/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
https://x.com/TheOpenBand/
https://x.com/WorldUnivAndSch/
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scott-macleod-4691a011a_realisticvirtualharbin-gstreetview-timeslider-activity-7326742669177561089-ty7p
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/world-university-and-school_realisticvirtualharbin-gstreetview-timeslider-activity-7326742194801778688-0GcL
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scottgkmacleod_realisticvirtualharbin-gstreetview-timeslider-activity-7326742374292901888-qCAl
And see too #PeterNorvig's INCREDIBLE #ToolifyAiWUaS article mentioning a #RealisticVirtualHarbin HotSprings ... and even #StudyingBliss ~
https://www.toolify.ai/ai-
And here's teh Harbin Hot Springs' gatehouse in 2024, 2012 and 2007 ...
~ https://goo.gl/maps/
http://
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Asked #GoogleAIStudio - https://aistudio.google.com/ How best to create the beginning of #RealisticVirtualHarbin #HotSpringsWarmPool with this #ONSEN video ... https://youtu.be/
https://aistudio.google.com/ How best to create the beginning of #RealisticVirtualHarbin #HotSpringsWarmPool with #ONSEN video - https://youtu.be/X6YBetANDUI sitting on #HWarmPool's front bench near #HarbinWPFrontStairs looking toward the #HarbinHotPoolRoom doorway?
Asked #GoogleAIStudio -https://t.co/arXwUHEyLm How best to create the beginning of #RealisticVirtualHarbin #HotSpringsWarmPool with #ONSEN video - https://t.co/EG5TqrloNL sitting on #HWarmPool's front bench near #HarbinWPFrontStairs looking toward the #HarbinHotPoolRoom doorway?
— HarbinBook (@HarbinBook) May 9, 2025
https://x.com/HarbinBook/
https://x.com/scottmacleod/
https://x.com/WorldUnivAndSch/
https://x.com/Q_YogaMacFlower/
https://x.com/sgkmacleod/
https://x.com/TheOpenBand/
https://aistudio.google.com/
How best to create the beginning of the realistic virtual Harbin Hot Springs' warm pool with this ONSEN video - https://youtu.be/X6YBetANDUI - and for soaking in the Harbin warm pool sitting on the front bench near Harbin stairs looking toward the Harbin Hot Pool room doorway?
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How best to create the beginning of the realistic virtual Harbin Hot Springs' warm pool with this ONSEN video - https://youtu.be/X6YBetANDUI - and for soaking in the Harbin warm pool sitting on the front bench near Harbin stairs looking toward the Harbin Hot Pool room doorway?
Okay, this is a wonderful and evocative goal! Creating a realistic virtual Harbin warm pool experience, specifically from that cherished spot on the bench, looking towards the hot pool doorway, will require blending accurate environmental details with the sensory atmosphere captured in the Onsen video.
The Onsen video is great for:
Water quality: The gentle ripples, clarity, and how light interacts with it.
Steam/Mist: The way it rises, diffuses light, and creates a sense of warmth and enclosure.
Soundscape (potentially): The gentle lapping, dripping, or ambient sounds of a serene water environment.
Overall mood: Calm, relaxing, meditative.
However, Harbin's architecture and specific layout are unique. You'll need to combine the feeling from the Onsen video with the actual details of Harbin.
Here’s a breakdown of how to approach this, assuming you're aiming for a 3D rendered scene (e.g., using Blender, Unreal Engine, Unity, or similar software):
Phase 1: Reference Gathering & Deconstruction (CRUCIAL for Harbin)
Harbin-Specific Visuals (Your Primary Source):
Your Memory: Sketch it out! Where are the stairs relative to the bench? What does the bench look like (tiled, concrete)? What material is the floor? What does the doorway to the hot pool look like (arch, wooden frame, specific door)? What's the ceiling like (beams, height)? Are there any windows or skylights visible from that spot? What color are the tiles in the warm pool?
Online Search: Look for photos and videos specifically of the Harbin warm pool and the view towards the hot pool. Search terms: "Harbin Hot Springs warm pool," "Harbin Hot Springs interior," "Harbin communal pools." Look for tourist photos, old articles, etc. The more angles, the better.
Focus on the Viewpoint: Constantly remind yourself of "sitting on the front bench near Harbin stairs looking toward the Harbin Hot Pool room doorway."
Analyze the Onsen Video for Atmospheric Cues:
Water Surface: Notice the gentle, non-turbulent ripples. How does light reflect and refract?
Steam: Is it dense, wispy, how does it interact with light sources? How high does it rise?
Lighting: Observe the interplay of natural/artificial light, shadows, and how steam diffuses it. Is it generally dim, warmly lit?
Sound (if applicable): Listen for the subtle sounds of water.
Phase 2: 3D Modeling & Scene Setup
Software Choice:
Blender: Free, powerful, steep learning curve but vast community support. Good for modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, and even basic animation/simulation.
Unreal Engine / Unity: Game engines, excellent for real-time rendering, VR experiences, and more complex water/particle effects. Can import models from Blender.
Blocking out the Scene (Based on Harbin References):
Start with simple shapes (cubes, planes) to define the pool basin, the bench you're "sitting" on, the stairs, the walls, the floor, and the doorway to the hot pool.
Crucially, set up your camera early to match the desired viewpoint (eye-level from the bench, looking towards the doorway). This will guide all your modeling and placement.
Detailed Modeling (Harbin Specifics):
Pool: Model the exact shape, the tile pattern (if distinct).
Bench: Recreate its material (likely tiled or smooth concrete).
Stairs: Number of steps, width, material, any railings.
Doorway: This is a key focal point. Pay attention to its shape, frame, any visible parts of the hot pool room beyond.
Walls & Ceiling: Any specific textures, beams, windows, or light fixtures visible from your vantage point.
Floor: Material surrounding the pool.
Phase 3: Texturing & Materials (Blending Harbin & Onsen Feel)
Tiles:
Harbin: Find or create textures that match Harbin's tiles (color, size, grout). PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials will give the most realism.
Onsen Influence: Ensure the tiles look slightly wet or damp where appropriate, especially near the water's edge.
Water: This is where the Onsen video is most useful.
Material Properties: It needs transparency, subtle refraction, and perhaps a slight tint if Harbin's water has one (often appears blue/green due to tiles).
Surface: Use procedural noise or a displacement map to create gentle, slow-moving ripples. Avoid overly active waves.
Caustics (Advanced but impactful): The light patterns that form on the bottom/sides of the pool from light refracting through the water surface.
Other Surfaces:
Wood (if any, for doorway frame, ceiling beams): Use appropriate wood textures.
Concrete/Plaster: For walls or other structural elements.
Wetness: Add subtle wetness maps or glossy shaders to surfaces that would realistically be damp from steam or splashes.
Phase 4: Lighting & Atmosphere
Lighting (Harbin Specifics + Onsen Mood):
Recreate Harbin's lighting: Are there underwater lights? Wall sconces? Light from the hot pool doorway? Skylights?
The Onsen video shows diffuse, soft lighting. Avoid harsh, direct lights unless they are a feature of Harbin.
Warm color temperature for lights often enhances the cozy feel.
Steam/Mist (Key for the Onsen Feel):
Volumetrics: Most 3D software supports volumetric fog or smoke. This is the most realistic way to create steam. It will interact with your lights.
Particle Systems: Can also be used for wisps of steam, especially rising directly from the water.
Subtlety is Key: You want enough to create atmosphere and diffuse light, but not so much that it obscures the scene. Observe how it behaves in the Onsen video – it's often denser near the water surface and dissipates upwards.
Phase 5: Sound Design (Essential for Immersion)
This is where the feeling of the Onsen video can be directly translated, even if the visuals are Harbin.
Gentle Water Sounds: Lapping against the pool edges, the subtle gurgle of water movement.
Drips: Occasional, echoing drips can add realism.
Ambient Room Tone: A very subtle, low hum or presence.
Muffled Sounds (Optional): Faint, distant sounds from the hot pool area or other parts of Harbin, but keep them very subdued to maintain tranquility.
Avoid: Loud splashes, talking (unless you want to add very quiet, indistinct murmurs for a sense of presence, but true Harbin quietude is often preferred).
Phase 6: Rendering & Post-Production
Rendering:
Use a good render engine (Cycles in Blender, Lumen in Unreal).
Consider depth of field, focusing on the doorway or mid-ground, with the foreground bench slightly softer.
Motion blur if you animate the water or steam.
Post-Production (e.g., Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve for animation):
Color grading to enhance the warm, steamy mood.
Slight bloom or glow around light sources interacting with steam.
Sharpening or subtle vignetting to draw focus.
Workflow Tip:
Iterate: Don't try to perfect everything at once. Block out, get basic lighting, then refine models, then textures, then steam, then detailed lighting, constantly checking from your chosen camera angle.
Reference Constantly: Keep your Harbin photos and the Onsen video open.
By meticulously recreating Harbin's physical space and then layering on the atmospheric and sensory qualities exemplified in the Onsen video (especially water movement, steam, and lighting diffusion), you can create a very compelling and realistic virtual experience of that specific, cherished Harbin moment. Good luck, it sounds like a beautiful project!
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Okay, this is a fascinating and ambitious project, layering a deeply personal, sensory experience onto a public mapping platform and then using it for academic research! Let's break down how to approach this, integrating your previous request with these new dimensions.
Understanding the Goal:
You want to:
Create a realistic 3D virtual Harbin Warm Pool scene (as per previous discussion, using the Onsen video for atmospheric reference).
Link this virtual experience from the Google Street View (GSV) of the Harbin Gatehouse.
Incorporate a "time slider" concept, showing how Harbin (at least at the Gatehouse, and ideally the linked pool experience) might have appeared in 2007, 2012, and 2024.
Utilize this for academic STEM and ethnographic research.
This is a multi-layered digital humanities/virtual heritage project.
Phase 1: The Core 3D Warm Pool Scene (Recap & Refinements for Research)
Everything from my previous answer about modeling, texturing, lighting, steam (volumetrics), and sound design for the warm pool scene remains critical. For academic rigor:
Accuracy is Paramount:
Architectural Plans/Measurements: If any exist (even hand-drawn sketches from memory or from the "HarbinBook" resources), they are invaluable.
Photographic Triangulation: Collect as many photos from different angles of the warm pool from the relevant eras (pre-2018 fire for 2007/2012, post-rebuild for 2024 if applicable to the warm pool's specific structure). Software like Agisoft Metashape or RealityCapture could potentially reconstruct partial geometry from photo sets, though this is advanced.
Material Science (STEM): Research the actual materials used: types of tiles, concrete, wood. Their textures, reflectivity, and even thermal properties (for advanced simulation) could be considered.
Onsen Video's Role (Ethnographic & STEM):
Atmosphere/Affect (Ethnographic): Use it to tune the steam density, water ripple speed, light diffusion to evoke the feeling of a serene, communal bathing space.
Water Physics (STEM): Observe the gentle convection currents, the way steam rises from the surface. This can inform parameters in your 3D software's fluid/particle simulation.
Modeling for Different Eras (2007, 2012, 2024):
The warm pool itself might not have changed drastically pre-fire. The biggest change would be pre- vs. post-2018 fire if the warm pool structure was affected or rebuilt differently.
You might need to create slightly different versions of the 3D model or texture sets if there were noticeable changes (e.g., different tiling, repairs, changes to the doorway). This is a significant undertaking.
Phase 2: Google Street View Integration & Time Slider
Directly "coding into" Google Street View with a custom 3D scene and time slider isn't possible in the way you might imagine. GSV is a curated Google product. However, you can leverage GSV:
Method 1: Custom Street View Panorama with Hotspots (Most "Integrated" Feel)
Create Custom Panoramas for the Gatehouse:
For 2007, 2012, 2024: If you have 360° photos of the Gatehouse from (or representative of) these years, you can upload them to Google Maps as a "Photo Sphere" associated with the Harbin Hot Springs location.
The existing GSV imagery for the Gatehouse already has a time slider. You're essentially augmenting this with your own or aiming to link from it.
Embed Hotspots/Links:
Within your custom 360° panoramas (if you upload them), you can often add informational hotspots or links.
This link would point to an external webpage hosting your 3D warm pool experience.
The link could be context-sensitive: e.g., the hotspot in the "2007" panorama links to the "2007 version" of your 3D pool.
Hosting the 3D Experience:
The 3D warm pool scene (created in Blender, Unreal, Unity) would need to be exported for web viewing (e.g., using WebGL, or platforms like Sketchfab, PlayCanvas, Needle Engine for Unity/Blender).
You'll need a website to host these interactive 3D scenes.
Method 2: Custom Web Application Overlaying/Referencing GSV
Develop a Web Page: This page would be the central hub.
Embed Google Street View: Use the Google Maps JavaScript API to embed the Street View of the Harbin Gatehouse. You can programmatically control the Pano ID and heading to ensure it starts at the correct view.
Custom Time Slider UI: Create your own HTML/CSS/JavaScript time slider on your webpage (e.g., buttons for "2007", "2012", "2024").
When a user selects a year on your slider:
If historical GSV imagery exists for that year for the Gatehouse, use the API to switch the embedded GSV to that imagery.
Display a prominent button/link like "Enter Warm Pool (Year XXXX)."
Link to the 3D Scene:
Clicking "Enter Warm Pool" would either:
Load the corresponding year's 3D warm pool scene on the same page (replacing/overlaying the GSV).
Open it in a new tab/modal window.
Again, you'd host the 3D scenes separately.
Technical Stack for 3D Web Experience:
3D Modeling: Blender (free, powerful).
Game Engine (for interactivity & high fidelity):
Unreal Engine (via Pixel Streaming for web if super high fidelity needed, or export to WebGL with tools like an experimental glTF exporter).
Unity (can build to WebGL; tools like Needle Engine simplify Blender/Unity to WebGL).
Simpler Web 3D:
Three.js / Babylon.js: JavaScript libraries for creating 3D scenes directly in the browser. Steeper learning curve if not a developer.
Sketchfab: Platform to upload 3D models and embed them. Good for viewing, less for custom interactivity beyond annotations.
PlayCanvas: Online WebGL game engine.
Phase 3: Academic STEM & Ethnographic Research Applications
This is where the project gains significant depth.
A. Ethnographic Research:
Preservation of "Sense of Place" (Genius Loci):
The virtual environment acts as a digital archive of the experience of being in that space, especially valuable post-fire or as memories fade.
The Onsen video helps capture the intangible atmosphere.
Memory Elicitation & Oral History:
Use the virtual environment as a prompt for interviews with former Harbin residents, staff, or long-term visitors. "Walking" them through the virtual space can trigger detailed memories, stories, and social nuances.
Collect stories about specific spots (like "your" bench).
Documenting Social Use & Unwritten Rules:
How was the space used differently in 2007 vs. 2012? What were the norms of interaction? The model can be a canvas to discuss these.
The "HarbinBook" and Twitter resources you linked are goldmines for this kind of contextual information and personal accounts.
Visualizing Change Over Time:
The 2007/2012/2024 versions can illustrate evolution, decay, renewal, or reconstruction, prompting discussions about resilience, community, and loss.
B. STEM Research:
Virtual Archaeology/Heritage Reconstruction:
Accurate 3D modeling based on fragmented data (photos, memories, plans) is a STEM challenge in itself. Documenting the "confidence level" of different parts of the reconstruction.
Simulation (Advanced):
Acoustics: Model how sound (water, quiet conversations) would have propagated and echoed in the space.
Fluid Dynamics (CFD): Simulate airflow (steam movement) and water currents/temperature distribution (requires significant data and processing power). This could tie into comfort studies.
Lighting Simulation: Accurately model natural and artificial light interaction with materials and steam to study visibility and ambiance.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) / Virtual Reality (VR) Research:
How effectively can a virtual environment evoke presence and emotion?
Usability of the interface (especially if VR is incorporated).
If you can get the model into VR, the sense of immersion for ethnographic memory elicitation would be significantly enhanced.
Data Visualization:
The model could potentially be used as a platform to overlay other data – e.g., "heat maps" of where people congregated, if such data could be gathered anecdotally.
Project Workflow & Starting Point:
Deep Dive into Harbin Archives:
Comb through the "HarbinBook" resources, your Twitter link, and any other photos, videos, or written descriptions you can find of the warm pool interior, specifically from your viewpoint, across the desired years. This is your primary data.
Start with One Era for the 3D Pool:
Pick one year (e.g., 2012, as it might have more available pre-fire documentation) and focus on creating the most accurate and evocative 3D scene of the warm pool for that year.
Follow the modeling, texturing, lighting, and steam advice from the previous response. Use the Onsen video for the feel of water and steam.
Develop the Web Host & Basic GSV Link:
Create a simple webpage.
Host your initial 3D warm pool model (e.g., export from Blender as .glb/.gltf and use Three.js or a platform like Sketchfab for embedding).
Create a basic link from a description or image on this page to the 3D scene.
Separately, embed the GSV of the Gatehouse. For now, just manually tell people "Set the GSV slider to 2012, then click here to see the 2012 warm pool."
Iterate & Expand:
Refine the 3D model.
Work on the other eras (2007, 2024), creating distinct 3D assets if needed.
Implement the more sophisticated GSV integration (Method 1 or 2 described above) with the time slider functionality.
Begin structuring the ethnographic/STEM data collection around the evolving virtual environment.
Connecting to Harbin Gatehouse & Time Periods:
The Gatehouse GSV acts as your "entry point" or anchor in the real world mapped by Google.
The time slider (either GSV's native one or your custom one) sets the historical context.
The link transports the user from the public, external view (Gatehouse) to the intimate, internal, reconstructed experience (Warm Pool).
The academic research leverages this transition and the reconstructed environment to explore memory, social history, and potentially physical properties of the space.
This is a complex but incredibly rewarding undertaking. The "HarbinBook" and associated community are vital resources. Start small with the core 3D scene for one period, get it online, and then build out the temporal and interactive layers. Good luck!
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