Creating 3D models of cultural heritage sites with terrestrial laser scanning and 3D imaging

The advent of terrestrial laser-scanners made the digital preservation of cultural heritage sites an affordable technique to produce accurate and detailed 3D-computermodel representations for any kind of 3D-objects, such as buildings, infrastructure, and even entire landscapes. However, one of the key issues with this technique is the large amount of recorded points; a problem which was even more intensified by the recent advances in laser-scanning technology, which increased the data acquisition rate from 25 thousand to 1 million points per second. The following research presents a workflow for the processing of large-volume laser-scanning data, with a special focus on the needs of the Zamani initiative. The research project, based at the University of Cape Town, spatially documents African Cultural Heritage sites and Landscapes and produces meshed 3D models, of various, historically important objects, such as fortresses, mosques, churches, castles, palaces, rock art shelters, statues, stelae and even landscapes.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Division of Geomatics

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Held, Christoph

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Rüther, Heinz
• Smit, Julian

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12076

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12076