Thank you RyderSK! I'm so please to hear this piques your interest and appears to align with work you are doing currently. I think I'll take your suggestion and post in the hardware and software sections. We have a Metis scanner (Italian) which is a very high quality flatbed scanner. The basic elements are its CCD sensor behind a top-end Schneider lens which sweeps across a scanning table and gathers RGB data. The image is lit by a bank of temperature controlled led lights each at a different angle) which allows the ccd sensor to capture shadow detail for each angle in each of the color channels (r,g & b.) All of that data is then stored in a single .mdc file, a Metis proprietary format. The software has the ability to recall each color channel & light angle (and variable intensity of each) to view on a monitor, then to output, color, texture and specular maps perfectly in-register to one another.
I'd like to show you the software the scanner uses and even scan a surface for you to show you the results. Or I can send you a sample file or two.
It's pretty amazing how it all works together (camera, lights & software) to make this possible. The original intended and primary application for this tech has been in the capture of cultural heritage documents (paintings, maps/charts, antiquities...) which requires an ability to isolate color, texture and glossiness in order to accurately preserve and communicate these images digitally without physically altering the surface.
