3d scanning and rendering cultural heritage artifacts on a low budget.

The recent evolution of graphics technology has been impressive, and the management of very complex models is now possible on inexpensive platforms. Moreover, automatic scanning devices (often called 3D scanners) allow to build highly accurate models of real 3D objects in a cost- and time-effective manner. This paper discusses some issues in the use of this technology by taking into account a particular application context: the acquisition of Cultural Heritage artifacts. Specific needs of this domain are: a high accuracy, a lower cost of the scanning devices and an improved usability of the data produced. We will present the results of two projects, aimed at: the design of a low-cost scanner based on structured light; the design of a data simplification tool which enables complex dataset visualization on low cost computers.