One-of-a-Kind Digital Imaging

As we mentioned in a previous post, Sustainable Archaeology has been hosting students of Loyalist College as members of the Sustainable Archaeology Animation Unit (SAAU) over the summer. They've been steadily working over the last several weeks, working on a CG recreation of the Lawson Site for the Museum of Ontario Archaeology (next door), scanning a wide range of different artifact types, and working out scanning protocol that will be used by Sustainable Archaeology. 

The images of these projectile points were produced on Sustainable Archaeology's 3D3 macro structured light digitizer. This digitizer was custom made specifically for the Sustainable Archaeology facility by 3D3 Solutions, and is the only machine of this type that they have ever produced  - in fact we believe this machine to be the only one of its kind in Canada! The machine includes two colour capture cameras, and is able to scan objects that are between approximately 2-5cm, while still capturing an intense level of detail. 

To demonstrate the capabilities of this digitizer: the image on the left shows an untextured scan of a small projectile point (approximately 5cm) using the macro digitizer. The image on the right is the same point, but in this case, the original colouring and texture of the stone has been added to the untextured scan. When viewing this object as a scalable model (rather than a screen shot, as seen here), with the ability to rotate the point in all directions, you are able to view in intense detail the way in which the point was manufactured.