Antikythera Mechanism 3D Explorer

This project provides an interactive three-dimensional reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism. The visualization is built with three.js and is driven by gear metadata distilled from published reconstructions by Price (1974) and Freeth et al. (2006, 2014). It is designed as a foundation for future immersive (VR) exploration of the ancient computer.

Features

• Complete Gear System – All surviving gears plus a full planetary system (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) based on the Freeth et al. (2021) reconstruction.
• Solar System Visualization - A dynamic 3D display of the Sun, Moon, and planets, with their orbits directly driven by the mechanism's gears.
• Interactive 3D scene – Orbit, pan, and zoom around the mechanism. Highlight individual gears, filter by gear train, and display annotations for each axis.
• Front dial reconstruction – Bronze front frame, zodiac/calendar dial texture, and live solar/lunar pointers keyed to the simulated gear train.
• Mechanical simulation – Procedural computation of gear ratios based on tooth counts and connection types, enabling live animation from the main drive gear through all linked trains.
• Information overlay – Inspect the function, historical notes, and specifications of every gear directly within the UI, with tooltips and focus controls.
• VR-ready architecture – Scene graph and controls are structured to allow straightforward integration with WebXR and immersive input devices in subsequent phases.

Getting started

1. Open index.html in any modern browser with WebGL2 support.
2. Use the right-hand control panel to:
   • Play/pause the animation.
   • Set the animation speed using the time-based dropdown (e.g., "1 Day / sec").
   • Set the mechanism to a specific date using the date picker.
   • Highlight specific gear trains.
   • Focus on and inspect individual gears.
   • Toggle visibility of axis guides and tooth markers.
3. Orbit around the mechanism using the mouse/touchpad (drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, right-drag to pan).

Note: The project uses ES modules from CDN (jsDelivr). Ensure you have an active internet connection when opening index.html.

Project structure

index.html          # Application shell and UI layout
src/styles.css      # Control panel and layout styling
src/main.js         # Three.js scene, controls, interaction logic
src/gearFactory.js  # Procedural gear mesh generation
src/system.js       # Gear graph simulation and animation engine
src/data/gears.js   # Gear catalogue, axes, connections, and train metadata

Extending toward VR

• Replace the OrbitControls usage with WebXR-compatible controls (e.g., XRControllerModelFactory) while keeping the gear system intact.
• Introduce immersive UI elements by projecting the current control panel into 3D space.
• Optimise procedural gear geometry (e.g., extruded involute teeth) for higher fidelity while balancing runtime performance.

References

• Price, D. de Solla. Gears from the Greeks. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1974.
• Freeth, T. et al. Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Nature, 2006.
• Freeth, T. et al. Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism. Nature, 2014.