Efficient Mesh Reconstruction and Texturing of Oracle Bones.

Abstract

The high-fidelity 3D digitization of small, detailed cultural heritage objects, such as Oracle Bones, presents significant challenges for which existing reconstruction workflows are often inadequate. Methods based on Structure-from-Motion (SfM) often lack the geometric density required to capture fine inscription details, while Light Detection and Ranging and RGB-Depth approaches may introduce high data overhead and unstable color mapping. Recent specialized studies have utilized multi-shading-based techniques to extract such hidden surface textures, yet integrating these results into a cohesive mesh remains difficult. To address these limitations, we propose a digitization framework specifically designed for object-level archaeological artifacts. Our method combines semi-automatic alignment with ICP-based refinement for robust camera pose estimation, reducing misalignment issues associated with feature-only registration. Furthermore, we employ an efficient mesh-based representation with vertex-level coloring, enabling detailed geometry and consistent texturing while maintaining compact storage requirements. Our contributions include: (1) a high-quality mesh reconstruction framework that preserves fine inscription geometry; (2) a hybrid camera pose estimation strategy that improves alignment robustness; and (3) an integrated hardware-assisted workflow tailored for digitizing small archaeological artifacts under controlled acquisition conditions. Experimental results on physical Oracle Bone artifacts demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a mean geometric reconstruction error of approximately 0.075 mm with a Hausdorff distance of 1 mm. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed workflow for digitization of oracle bone artifacts.