Effective High Resolution 3D Geometric Reconstruction of Heritage and Archaeological Sites from Images

Motivated by the need for fast, accurate, and high-resolution approach to document heritage and archaeological sites before they are removed or destroyed, the goal of this paper is to develop and demonstrate advanced image-based techniques to capture the fine 3D geometric details of such sites. The size of the site can be large and of any arbitrary shape which presents a challenge to all existing 3D techniques. Although laser scanners can acquire large number of 3D points, they can be impractical to set up and move around in archaeological sites. Alternatively, image-based techniques entail data from inexpensive portable digital cameras. We present a sequential multi-stage procedure for 3D data capture from images designed to model the fine geometric details. Test results demonstrated the utility and flexibility of the technique and proved that it creates highly detailed models in a reliable manner for many different types of surface detail.