3D modeling of cultural heritage objects with a structured light system

Abstract

3D modeling of cultural heritage objects is an expanding application area. The selection of the right technology is very important and strictly related to the project requirements, budget and user's experience. The triangulation based active sensors, e.g. structured light systems are used for many kids of 3D object reconstruction tasks and in particular for 3D recording of cultural heritage objects. This study presents the experiences in the results of two such projects in which a close-range structured light system is used for the 3D digitization. The paper includes the essential steps of the 3D object modeling pipeline, i.e. digitization, registration, surface triangulation, editing, texture mapping and visualization. The capabilities of the used hardware and software are addressed. Particular emphasis is given to a coded structured light system as an option for data acquisition.