.:: CAA 2010 -Fusion of Cultures- ::. Computer Applications in Archaeology, Granada (Spain) 6-9 April 2010

Prior to the invention of photography, there was only limited possibility to capture the real world in an objective way, main reason being that all kind of literature and arts, especially paintings and sculptures, contain an intrinsic subjective component. Although photography, and later on digital image processing, have provided complete new possibilities for archiving and documentation tasks, any 2D-technique is inherently characterized by strong limitations to reproduce the 3-dimensional world. However, within the last 10 years, advanced 3-dimensional surface scanners have been developed, now opening the 3rd dimension to digital image processing techniques.

The workshop will concentrate on high definition 3D-surface scanning and related software for data processing, optimized for the requirements of arts and cultural heritage, allowing the 3-dimensional digitization and analysis of art objects and paintings at the highest level of resolution and accuracy.

Focus of attention will be given on the following applications:

• Digitization of archaeological findings with highest definition
• Documentation and archiving of archaeological treasures
• 3D data processing and data analysis

Covering these subjects, the workshop is equally addressed to archaeologists, anthropologists, paleontologists as well as photographers, computer scientists, restaurateurs, conservators.

The workshop will consist of three parts:

• Part 1 will give an overview about the state of the art of high definition 3D-surface scanners and related applications
• Part 2 will present the processing steps needed to transform sampled 3D data into good quality 3D models (including processing of both geometry and color data) through a demo of open source tool (MeshLab)
• Part 3 : round table discussion about using 3D technologies in CH, to be held on friday.

Participants without previous knowledge in the field of 3D-scanning and 3D data processing will be given the opportunity to gain their first experience in scanning archaeological objects. Attendees already familiar or experienced with 3D-scanning can broaden their knowledge in this field by getting in touch with the latest developments.

The respective speeches for the workshop will be given by

• Dr. Bernd Breuckmann, CEO of Breuckmann GmbH, Germany
• Dr. Roberto Scopigno, Head of Visual Computing Lab, ISTI, Italian National Research Council