Database Management and Innovative Applications for Imaging Museum Laboratories Ruven Pillay, C2RMF Sauveur Prague, 31 May – 2 June 2006
C2RMF ● Research and Restoration Centre ● Created in 1931 ● Mission to scientifically study, document and preserve works of art from all French museums
EU Projects ● 11 projects within the ESPRIT, IMPACT, RAPHAEL, IST and e-CULTURE frameworks since 1989
Project Themes ● Advanced Digital Imaging ● Image Analysis ● 3D Imaging/Modeling ● Technical Vocabularies and Ontologies ● Database Management
Digital Imaging ● Large historical scientific photo- archive dating back to 1931 ● NARCISSE project in 1989: scanning of photographic archives at 6,000 x 8,000 pixels
Multispectral Imaging ● VASARI project ● 7 filter camera ( nm) ● 10,000 x 10,000 pixel resolution ● High colour accuracy of ~1dE in CIEL*a*b* colour space ● Custom image processing software, VIPS, developed to handle large images – resused in subsequant projects
Multispectral Imaging ● CRISATEL project ● Portable camera ● Higher resolution 20,000 x 12,000 pixels ● Sweeping light system minimizes damage to painting
Multispectral Imaging ● 13 interferential dichroic filters 400nm nm
Spectral Reconstruction ● Pigment Identification ● Illuminant simulation
3D Imaging ● ACOHIR project ● Panoramic view ● Colour calibrated
Panoramic Sequences ● Visible panorama ● X-ray panorama
3D Modeling ● SCULPEUR project ● Hardware from ACOHIR ● Volumetric mapping via silhouette extrusion
High Definition Models
3D Scanning of Paintings ● Laser-based
3D Scanning of Paintings
Visualization ● VISEUM project ● Exchange of images between institutions ● Tiled Pyramidal TIFF ● Client only requests viewable area ● Tiles dynamically JPEG compressed and then sent to viewer ● Fast viewing with low memory requirements
How it works
Content Based Retreival ● ARTISTE project ● Image recognition ● Classification by colour coherence, spatial distribution etc ● Possible Uses: Correlate artists to colours used or shapes Analysis of artist styles Technique analysis eg knife, brush Inscription characterisation eg signatures, motifs Ageing features eg lacuna, cracks, repaints ● Extended to 3D models in SCULPTEUR project
Ontologies & Semantic Web ● NARCISSE – first database ● CRISTAL – technical vocabulary definitions and translations into 10 languages ● SCULPTEUR – CIDOC mapping
Project Fusion ● Bring project results together ● EROS Multilingual and semantically mapped Database ● Remote viewing of multispectral images 3D panoramas 3D models ● Search by image similarity ● Database itself becomes a scientific tool for original research
EROS Database 20,000 paintings 40,000 objects 10,000 reports, articles etc 15,000 chemical analyses
Dissemination ● Open Source software licenced under GPL where possible ● Allows the work to live on after end of project ● VIPS Image processing ● IIPImage Remote visualization
Thank You