Acceleration of 3D Mass Digitization Processes: Recent Advances and Challenges

In the heritage field, the demand for fast and efficient 3D digitization technologies for historic remains is increasing. Besides, 3D has proven to be a promising approach to enable precise reconstructions of cultural heritage objects. Even though 3D technologies and postprocessing tools are widespread and approaches to semantic enrichment and storage of 3D models are just emerging, only few approaches enable mass capture and computation of 3D virtual models from zoological and archeological findings. To illustrate how future 3D mass digitization systems may look like, we introduce CultLab3D, a recent approach to 3D mass digitization, annotation, and archival storage by the Competence Center for Cultural Heritage Digitization at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD. CultLab3D can be regarded as one of the first feasible approaches worldwide to enable fast, efficient, and cost-effective 3D digitization. It is specifically designed to automate the entire process and thus allows to scan and archive large amounts of heritage objects for documentation and preservation in the best possible quality, taking advantage of integrated 3D visualization and annotation within regular Web browsers using technologies such as WebGl and X3D.