Case study: Missing Data Computation and 3D Printing Application in Symmetrical Artifact Restoration

The use of laser scanner has become a popular technique for the acquisition of digital models in the fields of cultural heritage conservation. It is still a challenge to accurately produce the digital and physical model of the missing region to restore damaged artifact. Taking the restoration of architecture decoration of fu wang ge of the Palace Museum as an example, this paper describes how geometrical computation and 3D printing (3DP) are employed to artifact restoration. First, the high precision laser scanner is used to acquire the range images from various views. To convert the point clouds that are produced after range images registration, into a set of triangle meshes, we compare Poisson reconstruction with the ball-pivoting algorithm. Second, the principal component analysis (PCA) is used to realize pose alignment. A bounding plane is chosen as the reflection plane and the missing data is computed according to reflection. Finally, we use a material jetting printer to convert a digital model to physical one, the benefit of which is to retain fine details and deliver smooth surface. We also briefly discuss the disadvantage of 3DP in the application of artifact restoration.