Moving Towards The Ultimate Reproduction - Scanning And Printing of Paintings in High Resolution, Full-Color 3-D.
Paintings are versatile near-planar objects with material characteristics that vary widely. The fact that like sculptures, paint itself also has an important material presence is often overlooked. This is because we have become used to enjoying these artworks through two dimensional media like prints and computer screens. The capture of the topography of the paint in 3-D is not only interesting for study, restoration and conservation, but it also facilitates making three dimensional reproductions through state-of-the-art 3-D printing methods. The design of a 3-D imaging device for paintings is challenging because of their varying material characteristics and subtle depth difference as opposed to the size of the canvas. No single imaging method is ideally suited for this task and each have specific drawbacks.
We propose a hybrid design consisting out of normal studio equipment, where stereo imaging (two cameras) is aided by the fringe projection technique (1 projector). Fringe projection is aided by sparse stereo matching to serve as an image encoder. The encoded images then aid the stereo cameras triangulate each pixel they observe. In this manner, we simultaneously capture both the color and depth, yielding perfect image registration. Through high-end camera's, special lenses and filters we capture a surface area of 170 square centimeters per capture with an in-plane effective resolution of 50 micron and a depth precision of 9 micron. Semi-automated positioning makes the capture possible of paintings like the 2 square meter big Jewish Bride by Rembrandt, yielding a billion points point-cloud, all labeled with their correct color. Another self-portrait by Rembrandt and work of Van Gogh were also captured to test the performance of the system.
This data is then immediately ready for 3-D printing (the easiest way to visualize huge 3-D models). This was done through a specialized high resolution full color 3-D printer, yielding a very convincing reproduction by accurately portraying the topography.
