VFF: New Visualization Technologies for Promoting Cultural Heritage: The Case of Eremitani Church in Padua

Promoting cultural heritage means to allow people to enjoy it properly, to allow scholars to study it scientifically and artistically and to allow restorers to secure its consistence and intelligibility through time. The first step is to survey its physical substance and new technologies, such as 3D laser scanner and digital photogrammetry, help to deal with measurements under a degree of accuracy never before achieved. The virtual clone, obtained through a cloud of points, is an exceptional digital document of the status quo, but it is also a useful tool to submit the work of art to any kind of cultural insights, such as specific interrogations, analysis of restoration, virtual travel in history and implementation of the reality. The case of Eremitani church in Padova is an extraordinary example of how creating a digital model, matched with the study and knowledge of scholars, can convey information through special visualizations.