Artec 3D Scanners Used for Historical Preservation at the Site of China's Famous Terracotta Army

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 19, 2016) - Artec 3D, a developer and manufacturer of professional 3D hardware and software, today announces that its light-based handheld 3D scanners were utilized by researchers at Northwest University in Xi'an, China, to accurately capture the shape and texture of the skulls and other bones of young females that were found at burial pits located around the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, Qin Shi Huang. This necropolis became world famous after the discovery of the first statues of warriors guarding the emperor's tomb, collectively known as the Terracotta Army. Artec Studio software was among the programs used to develop high-resolution 3D models from the captured data.

This announcement comes amidst the surfacing of new research that indicates ancient Greeks artists could have assisted in the design of China's famous Terracotta Army. These new discoveries and scanning, conducted using Artec's technology, were featured in the BBC's most recent documentary titled, "The Greatest Tomb on Earth: Secrets of Ancient China."

"The practice of 3D scanning has quickly become a vital tool for historical preservation both on site and in the lab," said Artyom Yukhin, president and CEO of Artec 3D. "The ability to easily create a detailed 3D model is invaluable, when dealing with artifacts and remains that are over 2,000 years old and will inevitably degrade over time. The adoption of 3D scanning has also allowed archeology, paleontology and anthropology to become globally collaborative practices."

"Artec Spider captured the texture of the bones with incredible detail that could be seen both during the actual scanning process and in the final 3D model," said Li Kang, Researcher for Northwest University's Department of Geology. "In addition to using Artec's technology for heritage preservation, the University also collaborates with police and uses Artec scanners for facial reconstruction."

The university's staff created a medical database of more than 2,000 CT images of heads of Chinese people. Then the 2,000 samples were turned into 3D mesh models of human faces and skulls in order to use these models for the facial reconstruction of unknown skulls, such as unearthed ancient remains or victims of crimes.

Artec's structured light, full color scanners capture the geometry of an object by projecting light in a pattern that allows for distance to be calculated through triangulation. The Spider, which was chosen for this project, has a 3D resolution of up to 0.1 mm with 0.05 mm accuracy. This allows for complex textures, such as those of bones, to be captured with the utmost detail. Artec's high resolution 3D scanners achieve this high level of precision through hybrid geometry and color data capture, eliminating the need for sticking targets to the object being scanned, which could prove harmful to historical objects.

In addition to the work being done by Northwest University, Artec's 3D scanners have also been used to create 3D scans during other historically important projects. These projects include the digitalization of numerous artifacts in museums around the world, the human ancestor Homo naledi in the Rising Star cave system, President Obama for the creation of his presidential bust, and 1.8 million-year-old fossils found at Turkana Lake, in Kenya, alongside renowned paleontologist Louise Leakey.

About Artec 3D
Artec 3D is an international company, headquartered in Luxembourg, with subsidiaries in the USA (Palo Alto) and Russia (Moscow). Artec develops and produces innovative 3D solutions and products. Artec has a team of professional experts in the collection and processing of 3D surfaces as well as biometric facial recognition. Artec's products and services can be used in many industries, such as in engineering, medicine, media and design, entertainment, fashion, historic preservation, security technology and many more. Shapify.me, the service for the creation of 3D characters, was designed and introduced in 2013 by Artec 3D: https://shapify.me. 

For more information about Artec 3D, please visit https://www.artec3d.com/.