REALITY-BASED MODELING OF MULTI-SCALE DETAILED CULTURAL HERITAGE

The aim of this contribution is to show the results of investigations held in order to provide a methodology to ease the 3D digital survey and representation of Cultural Heritage and therefore to suggest standard procedures and practices that can be adopted by Museums and Institutions called to document and promote the historical and artistic heritage they preserve. In particular, the case studies presented in this paper are both archaeological finds and artworks that have been chosen for the multi-scale complexity of their geometry and for the peculiar colour and reflectance characteristics of matter that require particular attention during their digital reproduction. Within our investigations, different technologies have been tested and compared; in particular, different versions of 3D models of the same artifacts were acquired using both range-based and image-based technologies, as well as different definitions and accuracies, aiming at highlighting advantages and disadvantages in different contexts and for different purposes. Within our methodology, particular attention has been paid to the check of the quality of collected data and of the restored digital replicas in relation with the main characteristics of artifacts and with communication aims. As a matter of fact, the definition of the most suitable level of detail of information to be restored accordingly to the peculiar characteristics of the artifact and to the different uses was one of the main presupposes to our research. In addition to these aspects, the preservation of geometric complexities and surface irregularities and meanwhile the reduction of redundant information in order to allow the management of huge amount of data, was not a secondary challenge of our investigations.