ADAT Salvatore Scifo (salvatore.scifo@ct.infn.it) INFN Catania

The Context Project Title: “Archivi Digitali Antico Testo (ADAT): Realizzazione di un Laboratorio integrato per il restauro, conservazione, valorizzazione e fruizione di documenti antichi”. Regional Research Project : cooperation of local SMEs, “Fondazione Diocesana dei Beni Culturali” and University of Studies of Catania. Resources INFN S. Scifo (s.scifo@ct.infn.it) IR&T engineering V. Milazzo (v.milazzo@irt-engineering.it) G. Arcidiacono (g.arcidiacono@irt-engineering.it) Catania, 23.10.2006

Introduction Today, the preservation of cultural heritages is becoming more and more important. Unfortunately, several patrimonies have been destroyed due to atmospherically agents, natural disasters and/or human faults. Digitalization represents a solution for the problem of heritage maintenance and also a convenient way to preserve these heritages from every kind of alteration including that one derived from physical restoration. Physical Restoring activities could be invasive and bring damages . Catania, 23.10.2006

Infrastructure and Technology Improvement and development of nets of communication with hight performances allow now, the realization of software platform oriented to the archiving and fruition of cultural contents of notable importance historical and artistic. Through the web, for example, historical documents (extremely fragile and of inestimable value), can be published to the world in order to make them accessible in every moment without altering their integrity. It is also possible to think about solutions and On Demand Services also based on GRID technology. Catania, 23.10.2006

The ADAT Model It represents a Process Model built on: Methodologies Technologies Procedures Hardware and Software This model aims to preserve and deliver the true value of the antique manuscript also towards its own virtual representation. Catania, 23.10.2006

Digital Restoration Aspects Research Objectives Virtual Reconstruction Experimentation Mechanical lacks removal (cracks, scratches, Torn Papers) Chemical lacks removal (fox blocthes, cellulose oxidation, water blotches, …) Recognition of characters manuscripts (ICR – Intelligent Character Recogniction) Integration of restoration algorithms with advanced parallel computation models. (genetic paradigm) Orientation toward full automation and massive elaboration of digital objects Porting of these high CPU cost algorithms on GRID Computing infrastructure. Catania, 23.10.2006

Mechanics Lacks Cracks/Scratches This mechanical damage is quite frequent and usually appears as a vertical thin paper deformation (although it can have any orientation). Normally, the direction of a crack/scratch is the same for all its entire length. Torn Papers Torn can dramatically compromise the document because it can interest an huge portion of the paper. In latter case the information couldn’t be reconstructed and is definitively lost. Catania, 23.10.2006

Chemical Lacks Cellulose Oxidation The oxidation of the paper is a natural process that affect every old paper. This effect is characterized from a yellowing of the paper. The removal of this defect, also make the background more homogeneous improving the readability of the document for optical character recognizing algorithms (OCR). Water blotches Water blotches usually comes from the adverse environments in which a book was conserved. It’s characterized by its irregular shape (bounded by a visible border) and for the darker color of the background respect to the original. Fox blotches Foxing is an alteration characterized by reddish-brown spots of various size. There are many theories about the origin of these blotches: fungal growth on the paper, Oxidation of metals from which some papers were made. Catania, 23.10.2006

Digital Archive Aspects STORAGE Handling 5 Tera Byte regarding digital representations of antique manuscripts (Storage GRID). METADATA “Translation” and integration of standard metadata schema for antique manuscripts on Grid Metadata Service (AMGA). SERVICE Implementation of a Web Oriented Application which interfaces Data Grid Services through a framework developed to hoc. Demanding management aspects for both net infrastructure and storage system (maintenance and security) to the Grid Site Management SECURITY Centralized access control mechanism based on Virtual Organization roles that users belong to Catania, 23.10.2006

Multi Layer Architecture Main idea is designing an opened, multilayered and distributed architecture to provide interoperability among Data and Metadata Management services of the GRID infrastructure and several applications. This architecture encourages implementation of “digital archive federation” that even sharing the same wide data base they keep their own autonomy and independence. Catania, 23.10.2006

Software Architecture Overview Catania, 23.10.2006

Deployment Plan Catania, 23.10.2006

Metadata Usage Catania, 23.10.2006

Cultural Heritage Meets Grid Let’s summarize: GRID Computational Paradigm covers both digitalization and virtual restoration aspects Grid Data Services cover preservation and archiving of a large ammount of cultural contents Metadata Sevice covers the integration and adaptation of standard metadata inside the GRID infrastructure High speed network covers the information publishing and retrieving capabilities. Catania, 23.10.2006

Thanks for the attention. Conclusion Thanks for the attention. Catania, 23.10.2006