When we look at an object/material/art our perception of it may change depending on many factors. The most important are the point of view and the lighting conditions.
In some application (e.g. decoration), getting the correct visual perception is as important as getting perfect color fidelity and optimal resolution, because if you cannot capture the essence of the material, you’ll not be able to reproduce it properly or anyway to transmit the feeling of the original material into your scanned images.
In some applications getting the correct visual appearance means being able to also capture the tridimensionality of the material (e.g. getting a visual “3D Appearance”); in other cases, it means being able to differentiate between glossy and matte area (e.g. to have gold details shine in a natural way); in some other cases at the opposite a very flat result is expected (e.g. in document reproduction so as to maximize readability and minimize the impact of the background material). Therefore, a perfect reproduction/digitization can only be achieved being able to control and adjust the visual appearance depending on the material and the required application.
For this reason, an important part of the technology we design in METIS is aimed to provide extended visual appearance customization. This is mainly obtained through the scanner patented lighting system in combination with METIS Light Inspector software that allows real-time evaluation of different visual appearances through extensive lighting control.