3D models for cultural heritage: beyond plain visualization

Digital technologies are transforming the way cultural heritage researchers, archaeologists, and curators work by providing new ways to collaborate, record excavations, and restore artifacts. The first Web extra is a video that highlights the Cenobium project, a pioneering Web system for presenting medieval cloisters and sculptures. The second video presents the results of a study using digital 3D technologies to assess the apparent shape similarity of a bronze statuette and drawings, to evaluate a possible innovative attribution hypothesis. The third video presents a very complex restoration project of a statue severely damaged by a recent earthquake in central Italy. The project made extensive use of ICT technologies. The fourth video presents a hypothesis of the original location of some terracotta statues over the old temple of Luni during the Roman Etruscan period in Italy. The fifth video was produced for a 2010 exposition on the Roman Empire held in Tokyo and shows the potential of new visual technologies for presenting works of art and supporting storytelling.