The busts selected were from several museums in the Europe and the USA.  They were produced in different materials and were different sizes.  The digital scans made it possible to produce models of the same size which allowed direct comparison of cross-sections and other dimensional information.      Click here to read more...

  The USS Monitor, designed by inventor John Ericsson, was recovered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1998, conserved over the next eight years, and now on display at The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, where it was scanned in place.

  With advanced digital 3D imaging technology (Breuckmann TriTOS Scanner) and CNC (Computer Numeric Controlled) milling machines, the Smithsonian Institution is able to create exact replicas of fragile artifacts for further study and exhibition. MCI scanned the skull [what skull – more detail needed] and provided the digital information to OEC.

Excerpted from article by Alvin Powell, 

The Harvard University Gazette (2007)

  Martin's Hundred was an early 17th century plantation located along the James River in the Virginia Colony, ten miles east of Jamestown, land formerly considered the domain of the Powhattan Indians.  In March of 1622, the Powhattan tribe launched a massacre which wiped out most of the colony.

  Hatshepsut was the principal queen of her half-brother, Pharaoh Thutmose II.  After he died she became regent and adopted the title of Pharaoh.  Sculpture of Hatepsut soon depicted the queen in male regalia.  Upon her death, Thutmose III ordered the dismantling of all shrine representations of her.  Thousands of the statue fragments, discovered in two pits near Hatshepsut's funerary temple, have been painstakingly reassembled by scholars of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

     3D scan data is useful in archaeology, paleontology and cultural heritage applications for dimensional analysis and study.  Collection of 3D scan data provides a digital archival record, increased access to objects in remote locations, and the ability to produce replicas useful for public exhibits.  There is no better way to record a complex object than with a high resolution 3D white light scanner.  The fringe projection method used in 3D white light scanning make non-contact digitization of art and sculpture and historical artifacts possible.  Direct comparisons can be made of dimension and shape.  Structured light Scanning allows revisitation of any object over time.  This includes redrawing of cross sections, 3D volume calculations, and other analysis that would otherwise be very difficult if not impossible.

  The model shop of the Office of Exhibits Central (OEC) at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. established a collaboration using cutting-edge technology to learn about a research team studying Colonial-era skeletons from sites throughout the Chesapeake Bay region. From the condition of bones and teeth, and how they were buried, it is often able to determine the age, sex, social status, health, trade, and cause of death. One such find is the skull of a young man, aged 15 years old and one of the original 1607 settlers from Jamestown Fort. From this skull a facial reconstruction can be created.

Two different measurement technologies were employed to meet the goal of high accuracy and high resolution.  A coherent laser radar system was used to scan the overall propeller at millimeter resolutions for documenting overall size; a structured white light scanner was employed to scan at micron resolutions to capture details such as surface cracks and graffiti etched on the blades.  The scanned point clouds were then merged to generate an accurate model for dimensional and hydrodynamic analysis.             Click here to read more...

Please see the Application Overviews below to learn more about some of these exciting expeditions.

  After traveling to remote areas by jeep and boat, the trip project required working outdoors in high heat and humidity.  Members of the team from the Harvard Peabody Museum gathered to watch progress of this successful project as one of the team members tapped at the laptop, blending the images from the different scans into one.

  The previous way to collect field information was to make a copy with a paper mold which required pressing wet paper to the monuments in several layers and then drying the paper before peeling it off, creating hard molds from which plaster casts could be made.  This process involved lugging in sufficient supplies of paper and water, and lighting a fire to dry it.