Capture and Visualization of 3D Shape and Materials for Understanding Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Abstract: Documentation, understanding, conservation, and exhibition of artwork and other cultural heritage materials can benefit enormously from capture and analysis techniques developed over the past decades by computer scientists. I will talk about a number of recent projects that have brought the capture of 3D shape, detail, reflectance, and scattering into museums and archaeological sites. Despite differences in datatypes and acquisition technologies, they share certain requirements dictated by the domain: archival-quality data must be obtained quickly and easily by non-computer-experts. I will also describe analysis, matching, and visualization techniques that hold the promise of becoming part of the standard toolbox of cultural heritage professionals.

Bio: Szymon Rusinkiewicz is an associate professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. His work focuses on digital representations of the 3D shape and appearance of real-world objects, including the design of acquisition and fabrication devices, data structures for efficient manipulation, and applications (most notably to cultural heritage objects and human skin). He investigates algorithms for processing complex datasets of geometry and reflectance, including registration, matching, completion, hierarchical decomposition, symmetry analysis, and sampling. His research interests also include illustrative depiction through line drawings and non-photorealistic shading models.