Three-dimensional digitization: making it easier and extending it to color

The easy construction of detailed and accurate 3D models is becoming a reality by the increasing diffusion of 3D scanning technology. The reduction in cost of the scanning devices and the increasing availability of good processing tools (including emerging open source solutions) makes 3D scanning an enabling technology for the construction of shape models. The talk will present the capabilities of this technology, presenting some recent advances (low cost scanning systems, 3D-from-images technology, improved automation of sampled data processing) and highlighting some open problems. A major focus will be how color or surface reflection characteristics could be sampled and associated with reconstructed 3D shape models. The different approaches proposed will be reviewed, giving more emphasis to the more practical solutions for both acquiring color or surface reflection and mapping those data efficiently on surface meshes. Some examples of the results of current projects, mainly in the Cultural Heritage field, will be shown.