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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ISPRS-Archives</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ISPRS-Archives</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2194-9034</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-869-2026</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Modelling Transparent Surfaces in Heritage Artefacts with Gaussian Splatting</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Medici</surname>
<given-names>Marco</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sterpin</surname>
<given-names>Andrea</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Settimo</surname>
<given-names>Stefano</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bevilacqua</surname>
<given-names>Matteo</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bertolasi</surname>
<given-names>Gianluca</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rigon</surname>
<given-names>Simone</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Farella</surname>
<given-names>Elisa Mariarosaria</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Remondino</surname>
<given-names>Fabio</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6097-5342</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>INCEPTION, Spin-off of the University of Ferrara, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Architecture, University of Ferrara, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>3D Optical Metrology (3DOM) unit, Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK), Trento, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>23</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>XLIX-B2-2026</volume>
<fpage>869</fpage>
<lpage>876</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Marco Medici et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B2-2026/869/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-869-2026.html">This article is available from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B2-2026/869/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-869-2026.html</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B2-2026/869/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-869-2026.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLIX-B2-2026/869/2026/isprs-archives-XLIX-B2-2026-869-2026.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>The 3D reconstruction of cultural heritage artefacts plays a crucial role in documentation, conservation and dissemination. While recent advances in photogrammetry, laser scanning and neural rendering techniques have significantly improved the geometric accuracy and visual realism of digitised assets, the reconstruction of transparent and reflective materials - typical in museal collections - remains a major challenge. Materials such as glass, glazes and varnishes exhibit complex optical behaviours, leading to incomplete or inaccurate 3D models. Recent developments in Gaussian Splatting (GS) offer a potential alternative by enabling efficient, high-fidelity scene representation without explicit surface modelling. However, their application to non-Lambertian and transparent heritage objects remains largely unexplored. This paper presents a study on GS methods for the 3D digitisation of transparent cultural heritage artefacts. Through a series of experimental reconstructions, the work investigates the potential and limitations of GS, highlight the opportunities of hybrid pipelines for addressing long-standing challenges in the digitisation of non-collaborative materials.</p>
</abstract>
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