Building a Digital Model of Michelangelo's

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 59 Because scanning devices are less expensive and easier to use than they were just a few years ago, a wide range of applications employ 3D scanning technology. As a result, various organizations can now produce models of cultural artifacts and works of art. Members of the National Research Council of Canada, developers of high-accuracy scanning equipment, have applied their technology to scanning paintings, sculptures, and archaeological sites. Recent work emphasizes the importance of portable, reliable equipment that researchers can easily deploy at the scanning site. Zheng and Zhong scanned archaeological relics in cooperation with the Museum of Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses, China. Their goals included creating a database of information about the excavation site and testing and employing virtual restoration techniques. Recently, Marc Levoy and a team from Stanford University scanned many of Michelangelo’s sculptures, including the 5-m tall David in the Galleria dell’Accademia. They used several types of scanners, including a high-resolution laser triangulation system mounted on a custom-made mechanical gantry and a time-of-flight long-range sensor. The large quantity of data collected should have a major impact in future development of shape reconstruction algorithms. Numerous other projects have been conducted or are currently underway. In this article, we describe a recent project to acquire and build a 3D model of the Michelangelo’s Florentine Pieta. Figure 1 (next page) shows a photograph of the Pieta and an image of our model. The work we describe here is unique in that an art historian, not a technologist, conceived and specified the project. Our goal wasn’t simply to produce the statue’s model but also to provide the art historian with material and tools to enable him to answer his own research questions. The project gave us the opportunity to explore the value of 3D scanning and visualization in a nontechnical discipline, art history. The project’s second goal was to develop scanning technology accessible to other cultural heritage projects both in terms of cost and usability. Such technology could potentially be used in widespread commercial applications, such as e-commerce, where equipment cost must be minimal.