A few years ago I became obsessed with creating 3D models from physical objects. There was an app on my iPhone called 123D Catch by AutoDesk and it allowed you to take a series of photos with your iPhone camera, then combine them to create a 3D Model. This lead me down a path to eventually take a course on Photogrammetry and develop a process for capturing objects in our Museum.
Autodesk eventually discontinued the app and built the technology into their paid products. This is when we started seeing lidar introduced with handheld devices. The first one I tried was using my XBOX360 kinect sensor with the skanect software. The quality was horrible, but was fun to learn about depth sensors and structure from motion. When the iPhone finally came out with lidar sensor it was like Apple had read my mind. I love having the ability to capture objects I find into 3D models. The quality is pretty good, not as good as taking the time to capture image sets for photogrammetry and use tools like Aigisoft metashape, but apps like Scaniverse do a fantastic job. You can check out some of the models I have captured on my Sketchfab page.
With any new technology comes new file formats, and 3D formats are definitely no exception. It seems every software developer has to come up with their own proprietary format leaving the digital preservation folks scrambling to keep up. The DPC and Archivematica published a report a couple years ago and state:
“There are many challenges in preserving 3D data. As well as the complexity of the data itself, there is
https://www.dpconline.org/docs/technology-watch-reports/2479-preserving-3d/file
a lack of interoperability between the different (often proprietary) systems that are used to create
and manipulate 3D models. Relationships to other data, software and hardware also need to be
captured and managed effectively.”
With my new iPhone in hand I found myself with new file format I was unfamiliar with. Universal Scene Description is a framework to exchanging 3D data between different software developed by Pixar. The relationship between Apple and Pixar goes way back so it was no surprise the Apple iPhone has support built in for this new format and I found myself capturing and sending 3D models to others with an iPhone. The USDZ format is a ZIP package format for containing a USD 3D model and is perfect for sharing and preserving.
There is no current PRONOM signatures for identifying USD formats, so I wanted to look into creating one. This is where I ran into a problem. The current PRONOM signature syntax has no way of properly identifying the USDZ format. Let me explain.
When DROID or Siegfried is used to identify a container format such as USDZ. It will first identify the format as a ZIP file, which technically it is. This triggers the software to then refer to the container signature to see if any patterns from the files internal to the ZIP match to a known format. This is done by pointing to a specific file and a hex pattern or ascii string within the file. In the case of a USDZ the internal structure may look like this:
Listing archive: scaniverse-20210928-113055.usdz -- Path = scaniverse-20210928-113055.usdz Type = zip Physical Size = 5702256 Date Time Attr Size Compressed Name ------------------- ----- ------------ ------------ ------------------------ 2021-09-28 11:47:36 ..... 297999 297999 scaniverse-20210928-113055.usdc 2021-09-28 11:47:36 ..... 5403849 5403849 0/texgen_0.jpg ------------------- ----- ------------ ------------ ------------------------ 2021-09-28 11:47:36 5701848 5701848 2 files
In this sample file the name of the USDZ is the same name as the internal USDC file. So the name of the USDC is variable and DROID needs a static name and path to look for patterns. The USDZ specification is clear that the only required file inside a USDZ is a USD model, anything else is ancillary and is not always going to be included. Currently the only format used is USDC, but in the future may allow a simple USD or USDA format. In addition, some of the other sample files show a very nested USDC file, making identification even more difficult.
Listing archive: Scan.usdz -- Path = Scan.usdz Type = zip Physical Size = 19155195 Characteristics = Minor_Extra_ERROR Date Time Attr Size Compressed Name ------------------- ----- ------------ ------------ ------------------------ 2021-03-09 09:22:36 ..... 19154773 19154773 /private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EFD09E66-32FB-4B08-8BED-B7E3D78FE1A8/tmp/Scan.usdc ------------------- ----- ------------ ------------ ------------------------ 2021-03-09 09:22:36 19154773 19154773 1 files
The USDZ format is not the only file format which makes identification difficult through variable names and non-static patterns. An issue on GitHub has been raised to address this problem. One potential fix is to use glob patterns as suggested by the amazing Richard Lehane, creator of Siegfried. This way we could use wildcard to ignore the variable names and find any file with an extension of .USDC for example. The USDC file format has a nice 8 byte header “PXR-USDC” which is perfectly suited for identification so our container signature might look like this:
<ContainerSignature Id="1000" ContainerType="ZIP">
<Description>USDZ 3D Package</Description>
<Files>
<File>
<Path>*.usdc</Path>
<BinarySignatures>
<InternalSignatureCollection>
<InternalSignature ID="300">
<ByteSequence Reference="BOFoffset">
<SubSequence Position="1" SubSeqMinOffset="0" SubSeqMaxOffset="0">
<Sequence>50 58 52 2D 55 53 44 43</Sequence>
</SubSequence>
</ByteSequence>
</InternalSignature>
</InternalSignatureCollection>
</BinarySignatures>
</File>
</Files>
</ContainerSignature>
Update: I was able to get a beta version of Siegfried working with my test signature.
siegfried : 1.11.0
scandate : 2023-06-02T08:54:27-06:00
signature : default.sig
created : 2023-06-02T08:52:33-06:00
identifiers :
- name : 'pronom'
details : 'DROID_SignatureFile_V112.xml; container-signature-20230510.xml; extensions: usdz-signature-file-v1.xml; container extensions: usdz-dev1-signaturefile-20230601.xml'
---
filename : 'scaniverse-20210928-113055.usdz'
filesize : 5702256
modified : 2021-09-28T11:47:37-06:00
errors :
matches :
- ns : 'pronom'
id : 'BYUdev/1'
format : 'USDZ 3D Package'
version :
mime : 'model/vnd.usdz+zip'
class :
basis : 'extension match usdz; container name scaniverse-20210928-113055.usdc with byte match at 0, 8 (signature 1/2)'
warning :
I am still in the process of testing some beta versions of Siegfried in hopes of getting the glob matching to work, but still have more to do. Stay tuned!