Surface Curvature Maps and Michelangelo’s David

In 1998 1999 a team of researchers from the Computer Science Departments at the University of Stanford and the University of Washington digitized a number of Michelangelo’s sculptures, including the David statue, using a custom designed laser triangulation scanner. The resultant data has been made available to the research community. This paper explores the data structures and the inherent geometry associated with the David data set. An estimation of surface curvature that exploits the structure and geometry of the data set is described. Finally surface curvature maps are defined and several curvature maps of David are presented.