3D Re-creation of Heritage Artefacts Using a Hybrid of CGI and Holography

Digital holograms are presented as a way to re-present and contextualise works of art that are too valuable or fragile to be transported to, and placed in, a holographic imaging system. The prototype exercise was conducted on Chinese Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain artefacts. The specific aim of the work was to explore digital holographic printing as an innovative technology to recover detailed comprehensive impressions of such cultural relics and their environment. Instead of the use of specialist holographic imaging devices, a sequence of conventional photographs of the artefacts was taken and these were then used to create CGI three-dimensional images of them. The CGI recreations were then used to create digital holograms which were printed using an innovative printer developed within the authors' research group. Further, the environment in which the artefacts were discovered had only been very sketchily recorded and hence reasonable artistic licence was used to create CGI representations of this to create holograms showing the complete archaeological experience.