3D reconstruction from images for museum artefacts: A comparative study

Structure from Motion (SfM) is considered to be a low-cost and easy-to-use 3D digitization method compared to other methods such as laser scanning. SfM has become a widely used reconstruction method in cultural heritage applications including museums artifacts and archaeological sites. In this paper we are going to present a comparative study for using two SfM software: PhotoScan from Agisoft and RECAP from Autodesk as part of our an on-going research that aims at finding the best method to create high quality 3D models for artifacts with minimal human interference. To expose real problems expected in the museum environment, the study was made using three small artefacts from the Egyptian museum in Cairo.