A novel application of the white light/fringe projection duo: recovering high precision three-dimensional images from fossils for the digital preservation of morphology

Abstract

There has been long historical interest in digital preservation of morphological features of biological materials, especially because often the preservation of sensitive molecules is critical for evolutionary studies. To this end, we successfully applied the recent advances of the fringe projection profilometry technique, in conjunction with white light and a new phase algorithm, to digitalize the shape of a fossil rodent hemimandible. We were able to generate a cloud of points in an array of data that allowed us to plot a three-dimensional (3-D) digital restoration of the entire fossil sample. The maximum resolution of this system is given by the diffraction limit (in the order of microns), and we show that this enhanced system can be used with objects in a range of 1-30 mm, minimizing the systematic errors induced by small vibrations or light fluctuations and, consequently, improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the recovered cloud data. This is a useful tool to preserve 3-D images of fossils and other biological objects for which rather detailed morphological information is required, like in research studies for biologists and paleontologists or, as in the present case, when researchers need a morphological replica because the sample will be destroyed for ancient DNA extraction.

3d Digitization of Complex Exhibition Items (Mounted Skeletons of Dinosaurs) and Generation of Virtual Replicas for Biomechanical Studies

“…On the other hand, we also count with specific studies about paleontological remains (and, in particular, on dinosaur skeletons) which provide a complementary insight with regard to the detailed features of this kind of elements. Interesting examples of the use over time of different digitization technologies for paleontological bones, including many laser scanning techniques and close range photogrammetry, can be found in the literature (Wiedemann, et al, 1999;Mallison, 2011;Falkingham, 2012;Gutiérrez-García et al, 2015;Das et al, 2017, Erolin et al, 2017, Valle et al 2017.…”

Mínimos Cuadrados para la Calibración en Reconstrucción 3D mediante Proyección de Franjas

“…Las técnicas de proyección de franjas han sido usadas para medición tridimensional (3D) de superficies de objetos en varias aplicaciones, tales como: inspección en líneas de producción, conservación digital de objetos, ingeniería inversa y visión robótica [1,2]. Su popularidad se ha debido a la posibilidad de tener un amplio campo de adquisición de imágenes 3D, así como al hecho de ser una técnica no invasiva y que no requiere contacto del objeto.…”