Handling Critical Aspects in Massive Photogrammetric Digitization of Museum Assets

Abstract

Abstract. In recent years, a growing interest in the 3D digitisation of museum assets has been pushed by the evident advantages of digital copies in supporting and advancing the knowledge, preservation and promotion of historical artefacts. Realising photo-realistic and precise digital twins of medium and small-sized movable objects implies several operations, still hiring open research problems and hampering the complete automation and derivation of satisfactory results while limiting processing time. The work examines some recurrent issues and potential solutions, summing up several experiences of photogrammetric-based massive digitisation projects. In particular, the article presents some insights into three crucial aspects of the photogrammetric pipeline. The first experiments tackle the Depth of Field (DoF) problem, especially when digitising small artefacts with macro-lenses. On the processing side, two decisive and time-consuming tasks are instead investigated: background masking and point cloud editing, exploring and proposing automatic solutions for speeding up the reconstruction process.

The Use of Virtual Reflectance Transformation Imaging (V-RTI) in the Field of Cultural Heritage: Approaching the Materiality of an Ancient Egyptian Rock-Cut Chapel

“…Various techniques are available for generating RTI, such as using a fixed dome [21] or motorized rotating arcs for light positioning, as well as the adoption of photogrammetry; while extensively applied in the large-scale digitization of museum artifacts [33], the latter is also useful for metrology validation [34,35] and multiband analysis [4].…”

An improved methodology for extending the applicability of Reflectance Transformation Imaging to confined sites

“…Multiple methods exist for creating RTIs, including the use of fixed domes [7] or motorized rotating arcs for light placement as well as the implementation of photogrammetry, largely used in massive digitization of museum assets [8], as well as for metrology validation [9] [10] and multispectral analysis [11]. The workflow presented here involves four steps: photographic acquisition, photogrammetry, rendering, and V-RTI reconstruction.…”

An improved methodology for extending the applicability of Reflectance Transformation Imaging to confined sites

“…Multiple methods exist for creating RTIs, including the use of fixed domes [7] or motorized rotating arcs for light placement as well as the implementation of photogrammetry, largely used in massive digitization of museum assets [8], as well as for metrology validation [9] [10] and multispectral analysis [11]. The workflow presented here involves four steps: photographic acquisition, photogrammetry, rendering, and V-RTI reconstruction.…”