Researchers are continuously working on devising new technical solutions for the restoration of historical art treasures in order to preserve and protect cultural heritage in the long term. One of them is quicker and more thorough digitization in 3D of artifacts and pieces of art, an often time consuming and costly process.
Researchers led by Pedro Santos, at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD in Darmstadt, have now developed an automated scanning line called “CultLab3D”. Thanks to a scanning street it is now possible to create a digital copy of an object within 5 minutes.
For the future, the researchers plan to increase the possibilites even further. In addition to the geometry, the texture and the optical material properties, the interior of the object will also be captured with information from optical, electromagnetic and acoustic processes (ultrasound) to provide an analysis of internal material and damage. With this it should be possible to map and assess the interior of an object and recognize instabilities, corrosion or holes in the inside.
Read the full article (in German) at Ingenieur.de.