Accurate 3d Textured Models of Vessels for the Improvement of the Educational Tools of a Museum

Besides the demonstration of the findings, modern museums organize educational programs which aim to experience and knowledge sharing combined with entertainment rather than to pure learning. Toward that effort, 2D and 3D digital representations are gradually replacing the traditional recording of the findings through photos or drawings. The present paper refers to a project that aims to create 3D textured models of two lekythoi that are exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in Greece; on the surfaces of these lekythoi scenes of the adventures of Odysseus are depicted. The project is expected to support the production of an educational movie and some other relevant interactive educational programs for the museum. The creation of accurate developments of the paintings and of accurate 3D models is the basis for the visualization of the adventures of the mythical hero. The data collection was made by using a structured light scanner consisting of two machine vision cameras that are used for the determination of geometry of the object, a high resolution camera for the recording of the texture, and a DLP projector. The creation of the final accurate 3D textured model is a complicated and tiring procedure which includes the collection of geometric data, the creation of the surface, the noise filtering, the merging of individual surfaces, the creation of a c-mesh, the creation of the UV map, the provision of the texture and, finally, the general processing of the 3D textured object. For a better result a combination of commercial and in-house software made for the automation of various steps of the procedure was used. The results derived from the above procedure were especially satisfactory in terms of accuracy and quality of the model. However, the procedure was proved to be time consuming while the use of various software packages presumes the services of a specialist.