Feature curves in range images with application to archaeology

Day - Time: 22 October 2010, h.11:00
Place: Area della Ricerca CNR di Pisa - Room: C-29
Speakers
  • Ilan Shimshoni (Information Systems dept, University of Haifa)
Referent

Matteo Dellepiane

Abstract

Archaeological artifacts are of vital importance in archaeological research. At present there is a drive to scan these artifacts and store the scanned objects on the internet making them accessible to the whole research community. We propose a new approach for automatic processing of these 3D models. Given such an artifact our first goal is to find edges termed relief edges on the surface. The 3D curves that we defined are the 3D equivalent of Canny Edges in images. These edges can be used to illustrate the object replacing the human illustrator or at least helping him produce accurate illustrations efficiently using an interactive computerized tool.

Based on these curves we have defined a new direction field on surfaces (a normalized vector field), termed the prominent field. We demonstrate the applicability of the prominent field in two applications. The first is surface enhancement of archaeological artifacts, which helps enhance eroded features and remove scanning noise. The second is artificial coloring that can replace manual artifact illustration in archaeological reports.