Digital Photogrammetry and Laser Scanning in Cultural Heritage Survey

A joint project between the Interdept. Research Center of the University of Padova (CIRGEO), a research group of Istituto Tecnico per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (IRST) of Trento and the Visual Information Technology group (VIT) of the NRC Canada, in Ottawa, has been undertaken, with the main aim to create a set of 3D models of an historical building by means of photogrammetry and laser scanning-based surveying techniques. Beside the investigation of their geometric accuracy, a photorealistic representation suited for interactive navigation and manipulation in VR environment was a further objective of thie project. To this aim, the main room in the Aquila tower in Buonconsiglio castle (Trento, Italy) was choosen, as it featured a relative simple geometry along with artistically and historically very precious frescoed walls. In this paper a description of both surveying and modeling procedures adopted and results of a comparison test between employed techniques are presente