XR AI Spotlight Gaussian Splatting for Cultural Heritage
Jan 28, 2026
Thomas Flynn, a digital heritage specialist who led cultural heritage initiatives at Sketchfab and worked with UNESCO and Oxford, discusses Gaussian splatting and its role among scanning tools. He covers when splats fit into workflows, web publishing and interoperability, storage and layered archiving, 3D printing for outreach, VR use cases, and the challenges of mass capture and metadata.
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Gaussian Splatting's Strengths And Limits
- Gaussian splatting captures very high-fidelity visuals and tricky materials better than some traditional methods.
- Thomas Flynn notes it's less editable and interoperable than geometric meshes today.
Start With Audience And An Internal Ally
- Define your audience and use case before proposing 3D digitization to a museum.
- Find an internal ally and show concrete examples to align expectations and win support.
Choose Use Cases That Deliver Value
- Use 3D scans for practical museum outcomes like 3D-printed handling objects and outreach collateral.
- Prioritize deliverables that directly support education, accessibility, or revenue generation.