High-Precision Modeling of Cultural Heritage Artifacts and Reproduction

This paper proposes a practical, topologically robust and ranging-error resistive shape modeling procedure that approximates real 3D objects, for example, cultural heritage and archeological artifacts in shape and color. This enables high-density scanning for high-resolution modeling, the successive 3D model manipulation for shape modification and restoration, and also enables the color image mapping onto the modeled surfaces. A face array listing (topology), which defines the vertex (mesh point) connectivity and the shape of the mesh, is pre-assigned to meet the desired meshing. Stable and organized meshing, and hence, an accurate approximation, free from the shape ambiguity unavoidable in the widely used "retrieving topology from ranged geometry" procedures based on, for instance, the Delaunay tessellations, is then accomplished. This proposal is practicable for all kinds of objects, automating the current manual and time-consuming reconstruction procedure, eliminating rework requirement modeling and producing a versatile successive 3D shape manipulation.