3D modeling and remote rendering technique of a high definition cultural heritage artefact

Recent improvements in 3D laser scanning technology allow to reliably and accurately digitize the external shape of many physical objects with high definition and accuracy. Moreover the resulting 3D models can be used for digital documentation as well as to perform different analysis such as measurements, conservation monitoring, feature extractions and possibly virtual restoration. In recent years, the number of range scanners has been growing rapidly and surface reconstruction algorithms have been developing by the open-source community. This diffusion among cultural heritage institutions gives the scientific society a wide range of 3D hardware capturing devices and software solutions. Many researchers, however, do not have access to scanning facilities or dense polygonal models. In this paper is presented the whole pipeline from the creation of a high resolution 3D model of an "Acquasantiera" to its Remote Rendering on the world wide web without any loss of details or accuracy. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Guest Editor.