Haniwa: a case study of digital visualization of virtual heritage properties

In this research, we want to improve methods of constructing a relatively accurate digital and multidimensional model of Japanese haniwa from 360° scan data of ancient artifacts via non-contact 3D laser scanning. It is our goal that the research will help the archeologist and geologist to generate artifacts in proper 3D representation and concurrently to provide an opportunity for attractive, accurate, informative and interactive 3D visualization, animation and VRML on CD-ROM or over the WWW. In our methodology, we use a discrete cloud of points scattered on a surface to construct the function representation (F-Rep) of a 3D-Volume. In our case the points have been obtained with a laser scanner. The algorithm used to reconstruct the F-Rep is based on the Green function and an algorithm for reconstructing a volume with radial basis functions (Savchenko et al., 1995; Carr et al., 2001). We give a short and practical description of the algorithm described in (Savchenko et al., 1995); then we present our implementation of the algorithm as a library function for the HyperFun modeling language.