3D scanning services and surface analysis

3D model of Lanyon Quoit
Lanyon Quoit after scanning and presentation on Sketchfab for Penwith Landscape Partnership.

3D scanning services

Our 3D scanning services were used to create this model of St Piran's Oratory, Cornwall. The outer concrete walls were digitally removed to reveal the original structure. Here the screenshot shows the rectangular monument with rough stone walls on a black background.
3D scan of St Piran’s Oratory, Cornwall. The protective concrete walls have been digitally removed to show the original building.

We provide 3D scanning services to museums, archaeologists, collectors and all cultural sectors. We have been working with 3D data since 2000. We know what we’re doing.

We can help you to 3D scan small objects all the way up to whole landscapes and explore how 3D can be used to achieve your goals.

Whether that’s to create an Augmented Reality (AR) experience, show annotated object (or place) tours in-gallery on screen, to 3D print a replica, or to study an inscription or some decoration. We can help.

We work with museums, archaeologists, art galleries, private collectors and retail.

Explore this page to see what we can do for you, and view some of the 3D scans that we have created for clients.

3D scan of the 'font' in Madron Baptistry and stone seating. Screenshot from the 3D model. Commissioned by Penwith Landscape Partnership.
The ‘font’ in Madron Baptistry and stone seating. Screenshot from the 3D model. Commission by Penwith Landscape Partnership.

3D interpretation

3D scan of Penzance Market Cross. Early medieval decorations and inscriptions are almost invisible to the naked eye. Here, 3D techniques enhance the hidden details to help interpret the monument.
Penzance Market Cross. Early medieval decorations and inscriptions are almost invisible to the naked eye. Here, 3D techniques enhance the hidden details to help interpret the monument.

We can work with you to use 3D to help your interpretation or marketing requirements.

Working with real 3D data – 3D scanned by us or anyone else – we can bring reality into virtual spaces to help tell stories. Explore a submerged shipwreck deep under the sea, or fly around a landscape, understanding it in new ways. Reconstruct a broken object to help visitors understand how it looked or how it was used. Annotate a complex object to explain its functions.

See our case study below to see how we helped to interpret shipwrecks deep under the sea off the Isles of Scilly, UK.

Contact us to have a chat about our 3D scanning services and see how we can help.

Surface analysis

Reflectance Transformation Image (RTI) of the early medieval stone discovered at Tintagel in 2017 showing the writing under strong directional light.
The 2017 Tintagel stone after cleaning showing the writing under strong directional light

We can offer a combined approach of 3D scanning and innovative lighting methods to study small details. Think worn coins, eroded inscriptions or decorations, or wear marks.

In 2017 and repeated in 2020 using updated techniques we helped to read faint early medieval handwriting found at Tintagel, Cornwall. See our Tintagel case study below.

Contact us if you would like to discuss an object.

Case studies

Objects and uniforms at Bodmin Keep – Cornwall’s Army Museum

In 2019 our 3D scanning services were used by Bodmin Keep to create 3D models of a selection of objects and uniforms. The museum is in an historic building which does not yet have an accessible entrance. In their downstairs seminar room, staff can now invite those who cannot climb the stairs to view a meaningful experience of some of the exhibits using Augmented Reality (AR) on an iPad.

Our 3D scanning services have been used to help museums provide Augmented Reality (AR) experiences. Here, a mannequin wearing a green military jungle uniform can be seen in a screenshot from a 3D viewer.
Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry jungle uniform from the 1970s. View the 3D model.

Costumed mannequins can be looked up at, walked or wheeled around, and examined in detail.

3D scan of a small wooden water canteen from 1875. It is oval in shape, with a hole on the top and darker bands at each end.
1875 pattern ‘Oliver’ water bottle, made from wood, pierced by a bullet. View the 3D model.

Smaller items can be looked at closely thanks to high resolution details on the 3D surrogates.

3D scanning can be used to help museums provide Augmented Reality (AR) experiences. Here is a reclining Buddha mounted on a wooden plinth from Cornwall's Regimental Museum.
Reclining Buddha. Taken – presumably looted – by the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DCLI) from a temple in Burma (now Myanmar) in the 19th century. View the 3D model.

Tintagel medieval inscribed stone

In 2017 Tom was asked to examine an early medieval stone found during excavations at Tintagel castle. One of Tom’s specialisms and active research areas is enhancing faint and eroded details on surfaces such as inscriptions or decorations.

The stone had faint writing on it, and given the site’s importance (and mythical Arthurian connections) the team from Cornwall Archaeological Unit and English Heritage were keen to read the text. Tom used a technique called Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to create a highly detailed image of the writing which could be illuminated from any angle on screen. This breaks down the normal concept of a photograph, where the light is captured at the time it is taken and cannot be changed. By contrast, RTI captures the direction of the surface as well as colour information. It allows filters to detect when there is a change in surface direction, for example when a sharp tool scratches a letter into an otherwise flat area.

The 2017 Tintagel stone after cleaning showing the writing under strong directional light
The 2017 Tintagel stone after cleaning showing the writing under strong directional light

The stone was gently and lightly cleaned at the offices of Cornwall Archaeological Unit and an RTI was created using strong directional lighting from many different angles, combined using specialist software.

Screenshot of the RTI file. The shadows have brought the lettering into sharp relief allowing them to be easily read.
Screenshot of the RTI file. The shadows have brought the lettering into sharp relief allowing them to be easily read.

The RTI allowed for the lettering to be revealed clearly against the surface of the stone and for them to be read carefully for the first time. It was an exciting moment to read, for the first time in a millennium, the personal names of people who lived so long ago.

The stone includes Roman and Brythonic names of ‘Tito’ (Titus) and ‘Budic’. The Latin words ‘fili’ (son) and ‘viri duo’ (two men) also appear. The excitement of reading personal names for the first time in over a millennium is incredible. Tom passed on the enhanced images and the RTI file to medieval writing specialists Professor Michelle Brown and Oliver Padel for the next stage of interpretation.

English Heritage released the story to the press in June 2018, and the stone was featured in the BBC documentary “King Arthur’s Britain: The Truth Unearthed”, aired in October 2018.

Interpreting shipwreck sites in new ways

In 2017 Tom was asked by CISMAS on behalf of Historic England to research and undertake novel ways to explain shipwreck sites using 3D technologies.

Tom found that many shipwreck sites were trying to use ‘photo-real’ approaches to showing the scatter of underwater finds on the seabed, with water, seaweed, and realistic-looking objects as you might see them. Being a non-diver he found them to be difficult to understand, and not very effective in helping non-specialists to understand what was going on around the shipwreck.

Tom was keen to arrive at a completely new concept, and drew upon his knowledge of theatre studies and minimalistic design to try out new ways of exploring shipwrecks as a non-diver and non-specialist – that is most of the interested public. Taking in the stark theatrical minimalism of Bertolt Brecht, the simple ‘voxel’ minimalism of popular game Minecraft, and the trend of ‘low poly’ 3D art, he developed a new way of showing the seabed and artefacts laying upon it. Tom used Sketchfab to deliver the results, allowing people to explore the wreck sites on any modern computing device. The models could even be used from a boat floating above the sites themselves, empowering divers to plan their route around what is often challenging topography – big craggy rocks, seaweed-filled ravines, and boulder fields.

  • A view through the virtual sea down to the surface below and the wreck of the Association which sank in 1707. The numbers indicate interactive annotations.
  • A simplified model of a swivel gun on the seabed at the Bartholomew Ledges wreck site.
  • Anchor, cannons and iron shot on the low poly seabed at the site of Tearing Ledge.
  • The low poly seabed model and artefact scatter of the site of the Association, which sank in 1707.
  • “Cannon Gulley” at the site of the wreck of the Association. Note the simplified cannon models.

The seabed models themselves are based upon real survey data collected for the project, processed into a ‘low poly’ angular model that still remains a true representation of the topography. Representational objects (cannons, anchors, iron shot, timbers etc) are designed and placed accurately with bright colours to allow them to be identified. The seabed and objects are then placed in a semi-transparent ‘tank’ representing the sea, with the top corresponding to real sea height at low tide. Using Sketchfab’s notation facility, the groups of artefacts were numbered sequentially, allowing them to be clicked or followed automatically for an annotated virtual tour.

The project was successfully delivered and completed in 2018.

Site of Tearing Ledge by CISMAS on Sketchfab

3D scans online

View and interact with our collection of 3D scans created for clients via Sketchfab.

Contact us

If you wish to discuss commissioning our 3D scanning services and other surface enhancement techniques please email info@curatorialresearch.com