Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Accuracy limits of bone surface scans for archaeology and medicine
By Tompkins CG & Miller H.·2026·Department of Mechanical, United Kingdom·View original on Europe PMC →
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Original publication title: From engineered standards to natural bone: re-constraining topographical scanning for heritage samples.
Plain-English summary
This study looked at how well two common scanning techniques, focus variation and 3D confocal scanning, work when used on bone samples. Researchers found that these methods have some limitations, especially when trying to measure features like cutmarks on bones, which can get distorted. The 3D confocal scanning method was found to be more accurate for bone compared to focus variation. These findings help explain some issues that have come up in past studies about measuring bone accurately and suggest that future scanning equipment may need to be redesigned for better results. Overall, the research highlights the need for improved scanning methods for studying bone.
Abstract
The microscopic topographical scanning of bone material is a common practice for multiple fields, such as archaeology, medicine, and criminology. However, assessments of whether the tools used to perform these scans are accurate on these objects have yet to be performed. In this work, the performance of the two most common scanning techniques used on bone items, focus variation and 3D confocal scanning, are preliminarily assessed, revealing previously unknown limitations with current measurement practice and technologies. Across a range of bone specimens, the same limitation appears, which does not occur on any of a subset of engineered materials tested. The types of features that bone-focused work would commonly asses, such as cutmarks, are revealed to be the most susceptible to distortion. 3D confocal is preliminarily determined as the more accurate technique to use on bone. The discrepancies discovered in this work begin to answer some of the unsolved repeatability problems noted during previous work on bone objects, and highlight how future equipment must be redesigned to accommodate this new style of emerging, critical, applications.
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Search related cases →Original publication on Europe PMC: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42032250