COMBINED LASER SCANNER AND DENSE STEREO MATCHING TECHNIQUES FOR 3D MODELLING OF HERITAGE SITES: DAR ES-SARAYA MUSEUM

Abstract

High resolution 3D point cloud recording is a demanding task for generating meshed surface and CAD object models. Accurate, complete and realistic 3D point cloud is expected from the adopted recording technique. Due to the complex structural environments of the heritage sites, complete, yet suitable, object coverage by Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) is not guaranteed. The recent improvements in image stereo matching algorithms allow for an automatic dense point clouds acquisition. Acquiring 3D point cloud using images has many advantages related to flexibility and portability. The choice of the best technique relies on the site configuration and the performance of the selected sensor. This paper demonstrates the potential benefits of integrating TLS and Dense Stereo Matching (DSM) techniques in order to form a complete and detailed representation of Dar Es-Saraya Museum. The paper fully discusses the processing and registration of the TLS and DSM data in creating a 3D point cloud of the museum to be used in a more accurate CAD model.