Laser scanners for remote diagnostic and virtual fruition of cultural heritage

The recent development of laser scanners in environmental diagnostics made possible to implement their prototypes for remote characterization of cultural heritage (CH) surfaces. Specific data analysis algorithms have been developed to handle large data set acquired in high resolution operation. Non-invasive, or at least micro-invasive methodologies applied on real CH targets have shown the possibility to obtain information on surface appearance, morphology and composition. The added value of optical and spectroscopic integrated sensors is discussed for some significant case studies addressed both to a deep knowledge of the artifacts (materials and methods of realization) and to their structural characterization.