Cost Evaluation of 3D Digitisation Techniques

In the framework of the Belgian BELSPO AGORA 3D and DIGIT03 programs, we have been evaluating the 3D digitising technologies regarding the quality of the acquisition, the capacities and limitations of each technique, but also the direct cost of the different 3D digitisation processes. It is on this latest topic that we focused for this paper. In order to evaluate the cost of 3D digitisation, we are considering the time for the digitisation, the cost of the equipment and the cost of the staff. Our preliminary results show that the real cost by specimen depends on the amount of specimens to digitise. Techniques that appear low-cost can be the most expensive in the framework of massive digitization programs, while a more expensive equipment can be more efficient in the long term. Therefore low-cost equipment’s are mainly recommended for occasional digitisation or small series.