Using digital 3D models for study and restoration of Cultural Heritage artifacts

Dellepiane M., Callieri M., Corsini M., Scopigno R.

3D scanning  Cultural heritage  3D graphics  Restoration  Virtual reality 

This Chapter describes the so-called 3D scanning pipeline (i.e., how raw sampled 3D data have to be processed to obtain a complete 3D model of a real-world object). This kind of raw data may be the result of the sampling of a real-world object by a 3D scanning device [1] or by one of the recent image-based approaches (which returns raw 3D data by processing set of images) [2] . Thanks to the improvement of the 3D scanning devices (and the development of software tools), it is now quite easy to obtain high quality, high resolution three-dimensional sampling in relatively short times. Conversely, processing this fragmented/raw data to generate a complete and usable 3D model is still a complex task, requiring the use of several algorithms and tools; the knowledge of the processing tasks and solutions required is still the realm of well-informed practitioners and it often appears as a set of obscure black boxes to most of the users. Therefore, we focus the Chapter on: (a) the geometric processing tasks that have to be applied to raw 3D scanned data to transform them into a clean and complete 3D model and, (b), how 3D scanning technology should be used for the acquisition of real artifacts. The sources of sample 3D data (i.e., the different hardware systems used in 3D scanning), are briefly presented in the following subsection. Please note that the domains of 3D scanning, geometric processing, visualization and applications to CH are too wide to provide a complete and exhaustive bibliography in a single Chapter; we decided to describe and cite here just a few, representative references to the literature. Our goal is to describe the software processing, the pitfalls of current solutions (trying to cope both with existing commercial systems and academic tools/results) and to highlight some topics of interest for future research, according to our experience and sensibility. The presentation follows in part the structure of a recently published paper on the same subject [3].

Source: Digital Imaging for Cultural Heritage Preservation: Analysis, Restoration, and Reconstruction of Ancient Artworks, edited by Filippo Stanco, Sebastiano Battiato, Giovanni Gallo, pp. 39–71. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2011

Publisher: CRC Press, Boca Raton, USA