Combining shape from silhouette and shape from structured light for volume estimation of archaeological vessels

An algorithm for the automatic construction of a 3d model of archaeological vessels using two different 3d algorithms is presented. In archeology the determination of the exact volume of arbitrary vessels is of importance since this provides information about the manufacturer and the usage of the vessel. To acquire the 3d shape of objects with handles is complicated, since occlusions of the object´s surface are introduced by the handle and can only be resolved by taking multiple views. Therefore, the 3d reconstruction is based on a sequence of images of the object taken from different viewpoints with two different algorithms; shape from silhouette and shape from structured light. The output of both algorithms are then used to construct a single 3d model. Results of the algorithm developed are presented for both synthetic and real input images.