April 2003

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Over the past 5 years there has been a great deal of interest in using 3D scanning in cultural heritage projects. Applications range from documentation for subject experts to communication to the general public. We have been involved with two cultural heritage projects at IBM Research - the now completed study of Michelangelo's Florence Pieta` and an on-going project with the Egyptian National Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage. I will present some new algorithms for geometric and photometric processing we developed to address problems we encountered in the Pieta` project. I will also describe our efforts in developing algorithms for very inexpensive capture systems. Finally I will show preliminary results from the Egyptian culture project and discuss issues that we are working on related to ease of use and the estimation of surface properties.

Reference:

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  Michelangelo's Florence Pietà,
  Jack Wasserman
  with contributions by Franca Trinchieri Camiz, Timothy Verdon, and Peter Rockwell
  Technical studies by ENEA, Opificio delle Pietre Dure, and IBM
  New Photography by Aurelio Amendola
  Princeton University Press, February 2003.

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Last Updated: April 15, 2003