CultLab3D - On the Verge of 3D Mass Digitization

Abstract

Acquisition of 3D geometry, texture and optical material properties of real objects still consumes a considerable amount of time, and forces humans to dedicate their full attention to this process. We propose CultLab3D, an automatic modular 3D digitization pipeline, aiming for efficient mass digitization of 3D geometry, texture, and optical material properties. CultLab3D requires minimal human intervention and reduces processing time to a fraction of today's efforts for manual digitization. The final step in our digitization workflow involves the integration of the digital object into enduring 3D Cultural Heritage Collections together with the available semantic information related to the object. In addition, a software tool facilitates virtual, location-independent analysis and publication of the virtual surrogates of the objects, and encourages collaboration between scientists all around the world. The pipeline is designed in a modular fashion and allows for further extensions to incorporate newer technologies. For instance, by switching scanning heads, it is possible to acquire coarser or more refined 3D geometry.