Conoscopic laser microprofilometry for 3D digital reconstruction of surfaces with sub-millimeter resolution

The importance of digitalizing not only the shape of the objects but its surface is sometimes neglected. Acquiring the surface profile is instead an important step for monitoring and digitalizing art-works and archaeological artifacts and also for retrieving useful information to attempt to reconstruct digitally the original surface. In order to achieve this goal, high resolution instruments must be implemented. In this paper, the capability of a newly developed laser conoscopic microprofilometry system to acquire 3D surfaces with a sub-millimeter resolution is shown. A roman coin dated 9 B.C. has been acquired with a spatial sampling of 20 microns, and a bronze high-relief with a spatial sampling of 100 microns with the purpose of high-fidelity surface reconstruction.