The Common Implementation Framework as Service - Towards Novel Applications for Streamlined Presentation of 3D Content on the Web

We solve a standing issue of the recently published Common Implementation Framework (CIF) for Online Virtual Museums: programmatic access to the transcoding, optimization and template rendering infrastructure of the CIF. We propose a method that enables researchers and developers to build novel systems on top of the CIF infrastructure beyond its current Cultural Heritage workflow. Therefore, we introduce a way to programmatically access the powerful backend of the CIF through a universal access layer, addressable by standards like HTTP and the JSON Data Interchange Format. In order to demonstrate our approach, we present two different use cases in which the CIF pipeline is utilized as a service through the proposed resource-based access layer: a native mobile iOS application for browsing 3D model repositories realizing just-in-time optimization of large models, and a MeshLab plugin to asynchronously convert and prepare a model for the Web.