KNOWLEDGE AND DOCUMENTATION OF RENAISSANCE WORKS OF ART: THE REPLICA OF THE “ANNUNCIATION” BY BEATO ANGELICO

The Annunciation by Guido di Pietro from Mugello, known as Beato Angelico, is a wide tempera painting with some fine gold foil placed on a wooden support, today hosted at the Museum of the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in San Giovanni Valdarno. On the occasion of the exhibition “Masaccio e Angelico. Dialogo sulla verità nella pittura”, the museum asked to the Department of Architecture at the University of Bologna to develop a digital high-resolution surrogate to favour deep investigations, to plan restoration and to simply tell the stories behind the artwork. Two tasks were accomplished: to let visitors discover the secrets in the painting and to let scholars study the artwork, to better understand the masterpiece. This paper introduces the outcomes of the research developed to digitize the Annunciation, following a dedicated pipeline developed to improve the fruition of its digital replica, originated from different input sources, and surrogating the user experience on the real object. This work presents a method for the 3D reconstruction of the surfaces based on different techniques for elements with different depth resolutions (i.e., the painting and the wooden frame) which combine photogrammetry and photometric stereo exploiting both procedures and pushing forward the boundaries of Gigapixel Imaging and photogrammetric-based 3D model representation

Documentation of a historical house with close range digital photogrammetry

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Architectural Restoration, Izmir, 2008Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 121-128)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxii, 128 leavesThis study aims to document the original architectural characteristics, alterations and damages of a historical house by combining the digital photogrammetric techniques with the mapping concepts of architectural conservation so that an architectural conservation project can be guided. The proposed documentation is carried on the entrance façade of a 19th century house located in the urban conservation site of Alaçatı, ..zmir, Turkey. The Demiral House has conservation priority among the other listed houses because of its vacant state and damages.Analytic recording of the façades of the historical houses in Alaçatı can be made fast with the rectification option of close range monoscopic softwares. A calibrated digital camera and a total station are the other tools used in this process. The colored thematic maps prepared are accurate enough for 1/50 scale analysis and they possess the qualitative information on the photographs. After it is checked that the threedimensional measurements defining the general geometry overlap with the 1/50 scaled rectified image mosaic, the details concerning the deteriorations are decided to be drawn to the scaled elevation drawing from this mosaic.This study has proposed a contemporary documentation technique so that architect-conservators can easily adapt in their conservation projects. When compared to the frequently applied documentation techniques like hatching on scaled twodimensional elevation drawings, it takes shorter time to prepare the proposed mapping method on rectified image mosaic. The architect-restorer has also the chance to examine many constructional details on the scaled rectified image mosaic. The end results are more realistic. Keywords: Architectural conservation, Close range, Rectification, Mapping, Alaçatı

Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts. EVA 2019 Florence

The Publication is following the yearly Editions of EVA FLORENCE. The State of Art is presented regarding the Application of Technologies (in particular of digital type) to Cultural Heritage. The more recent results of the Researches in the considered Area are presented. Information Technologies of interest for Culture Heritage are presented: multimedia systems, data-bases, data protection, access to digital content, Virtual Galleries. Particular reference is reserved to digital images (Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts), regarding Cultural Institutions (Museums, Libraries, Palace - Monuments, Archaeological Sites). The International Conference includes the following Sessions: Strategic Issues; New Science and Culture Developments & Applications; New Technical Developments & Applications; Cultural Activities – Real and Virtual Galleries and Related Initiatives, Access to the Culture Information. One Workshop regards Innovation and Enterprise. The more recent results of the Researches at national and international level are reported in the Area of Technologies and Culture Heritage, also with experimental demonstrations of developed Activities

Optical coherence tomography applied to investigations of optical properties of paintings

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), a fast 3D scanning Michelson interferometer normally applied to biomedical applications has recently been applied to art related subjects. In this thesis, the various applications of OCT to the non invasive imaging of paintings are explored in detail. The spectral reflectance and transparency of a variety of historic artists’ pigments in linseed oil or egg tempera medium are investigated and the best spectral window is found for OCT imaging of paintings. Different methods of OCT measurements of refractive indices of paint layers are presented. The first attempt of monitoring the cleaning treatment of a painting was presented in order to detect whether there was a change in the original paint surface after solvent cleaning of old varnish layers above the paint surface. Methods of revealing underdrawings (preparatory sketches) below the paint layers using OCT are explored to obtain the highest contrast images of underdrawings. One of the largest OCT underdrawing images is presented for the first time

Investigation of the complementary use of non-invasive techniques for the holistic analysis of paintings and automatic analysis of large scale spectral imaging data

The analysis of painting materials and methods is acknowledged for providing important information to art history. This study illustrates a detailed examination of the characteristics, advantages and capabilities that the combined application of a variety of non-invasive techniques, ranging from spectral imaging and optical coherence tomography (OCT), to fibre optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Raman spectroscopy, has to offer. The analysis of painting materials is seen under the prism of a holistic examination of different types of cultural heritage objects. More specifically, the limitations that the individual techniques face and, most importantly, how their complementary use can overcome them are thoroughly investigated through the examination of a large and heterogeneous statistical sample, in a completely novel way. The heterogeneity of the sample is related both to the painting materials (i.e pigments, binding media and substrates) and the degradation level (i.e. paintings stored in storages of museum and murals of caves that are exposed in the environmental conditions of the desert). For the extraction of accurate conclusions about the painting materials and methods applied in a specific period, the examination of large number of artworks of this period is required. PRISMS, the spectral imaging system developed by our group enables the time efficient imaging of large painting surfaces, leading to the acquisition of large scale spectral imaging data, which makes such an analysis faster, more cost-effective and less laborious without diminishing the quality of the results. This study proposes methods based on the statistical analysis for the automatic processing of the spectral imaging data in two directions: the revealing of information that is obvious under visual observation and clustering of the spectral information. With regards to the automatic revealing of hidden information, the potential of principal component analysis (PCA) and independent principal analysis (ICA), two of the most commonly used statistical analysis methods, were examined giving very good results. In addition, the development of a new method for the automatic clustering of large scale spectral information based on the 'Self-organised mapping' (SOM) method is presented. The spectral feature of the analysed areas in the UV-VIS/NIR (400-900 nm) is indicative for its pigment composition, therefore the automatic clustering of the pixel-level spectral information that the PRISMS system provides can classify the areas according to their pigment composition. The application of statistical analysis methods in the preliminary stage of the analysis of large number of artworks (e.g. large painting collections) of large surface painting areas (e.g. murals) is of significant importance; as they highlight the areas that should be examined in detail. The multimodal non-invasive approach was applied on the examination of three artworks of significant importance for East Asian art history; the cave 465 of the Mogao complex in China, the export Chinese watercolor paintings from the collections of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum and the Royal Horticulture Society (RHS) and the Selden map. The examination of these three works of art, in addition to providing a wide and heterogeneous sample for the detailed examination of the multi-modal approach, has also helped addressing several historical questions

Virtual Heritage: new technologies for edutainment

Cultural heritage represents an enormous amount of information and knowledge. Accessing this treasure chest allows not only to discover the legacy of physical and intangible attributes of the past but also to provide a better understanding of the present. Museums and cultural institutions have to face the problem of providing access to and communicating these cultural contents to a wide and assorted audience, meeting the expectations and interests of the reference end-users and relying on the most appropriate tools available. Given the large amount of existing tangible and intangible heritage, artistic, historical and cultural contents, what can be done to preserve and properly disseminate their heritage significance? How can these items be disseminated in the proper way to the public, taking into account their enormous heterogeneity? Answering this question requires to deal as well with another aspect of the problem: the evolution of culture, literacy and society during the last decades of 20th century. To reflect such transformations, this period witnessed a shift in the museum’s focus from the aesthetic value of museum artifacts to the historical and artistic information they encompass, and a change into the museums’ role from a mere "container" of cultural objects to a "narrative space" able to explain, describe, and revive the historical material in order to attract and entertain visitors. These developments require creating novel exhibits, able to tell stories about the objects and enabling visitors to construct semantic meanings around them. The objective that museums presently pursue is reflected by the concept of Edutainment, Education + Entertainment. Nowadays, visitors are not satisfied with ‘learning something’, but would rather engage in an ‘experience of learning’, or ‘learning for fun’, being active actors and players in their own cultural experience. As a result, institutions are faced with several new problems, like the need to communicate with people from different age groups and different cultural backgrounds, the change in people attitude due to the massive and unexpected diffusion of technology into everyday life, the need to design the visit by a personal point of view, leading to a high level of customization that allows visitors to shape their path according to their characteristics and interests. In order to cope with these issues, I investigated several approaches. In particular, I focused on Virtual Learning Environments (VLE): real-time interactive virtual environments where visitors can experience a journey through time and space, being immersed into the original historical, cultural and artistic context of the work of arts on display. VLE can strongly help archivists and exhibit designers, allowing to create new interesting and captivating ways to present cultural materials. In this dissertation I will tackle many of the different dimensions related to the creation of a cultural virtual experience. During my research project, the entire pipeline involved into the development and deployment of VLE has been investigated. The approach followed was to analyze in details the main sub-problems to face, in order to better focus on specific issues. Therefore, I first analyzed different approaches to an effective recreation of the historical and cultural context of heritage contents, which is ultimately aimed at an effective transfer of knowledge to the end-users. In particular, I identified the enhancement of the users’ sense of presence in VLE as one of the main tools to reach this objective. Presence is generally expressed as the perception of 'being there', i.e. the subjective belief of users that they are in a certain place, even if they know that the experience is mediated by the computer. Presence is related to the number of senses involved by the VLE and to the quality of the sensorial stimuli. But in a cultural scenario, this is not sufficient as the cultural presence plays a relevant role. Cultural presence is not just a feeling of 'being there' but of being - not only physically, but also socially, culturally - 'there and then'. In other words, the VLE must be able to transfer not only the appearance, but also all the significance and characteristics of the context that makes it a place and both the environment and the context become tools capable of transferring the cultural significance of a historic place. The attention that users pay to the mediated environment is another aspect that contributes to presence. Attention is related to users’ focalization and concentration and to their interests. Thus, in order to improve the involvement and capture the attention of users, I investigated in my work the adoption of narratives and storytelling experiences, which can help people making sense of history and culture, and of gamification approaches, which explore the use of game thinking and game mechanics in cultural contexts, thus engaging users while disseminating cultural contents and, why not?, letting them have fun during this process. Another dimension related to the effectiveness of any VLE is also the quality of the user experience (UX). User interaction, with both the virtual environment and its digital contents, is one of the main elements affecting UX. With respect to this I focused on one of the most recent and promising approaches: the natural interaction, which is based on the idea that persons need to interact with technology in the same way they are used to interact with the real world in everyday life. Then, I focused on the problem of presenting, displaying and communicating contents. VLE represent an ideal presentation layer, being multiplatform hypermedia applications where users are free to interact with the virtual reconstructions by choosing their own visiting path. Cultural items, embedded into the environment, can be accessed by users according to their own curiosity and interests, with the support of narrative structures, which can guide them through the exploration of the virtual spaces, and conceptual maps, which help building meaningful connections between cultural items. Thus, VLE environments can even be seen as visual interfaces to DBs of cultural contents. Users can navigate the VE as if they were browsing the DB contents, exploiting both text-based queries and visual-based queries, provided by the re-contextualization of the objects into their original spaces, whose virtual exploration can provide new insights on specific elements and improve the awareness of relationships between objects in the database. Finally, I have explored the mobile dimension, which became absolutely relevant in the last period. Nowadays, off-the-shelf consumer devices as smartphones and tablets guarantees amazing computing capabilities, support for rich multimedia contents, geo-localization and high network bandwidth. Thus, mobile devices can support users in mobility and detect the user context, thus allowing to develop a plethora of location-based services, from way-finding to the contextualized communication of cultural contents, aimed at providing a meaningful exploration of exhibits and cultural or tourist sites according to visitors’ personal interest and curiosity

Rock Art Pilot Project Main Report

A report on the results of a pilot project to investigate the current state of research, conservation, management and presentation of prehistoric rock art in England commissioned by English Heritage from Archaeology Group, School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth Unviersity and the Institute of Archaeology, University College Londo

Hyperspectral colour imaging and spectrophotometric instrumentation

The trichromatic nature of commercial photography is strictly connected with the nature of human colour vision, although the characteristics of usual colour imaging devices are quite different from the human visual system. The increase in the number of colour channels for spectral (either multispectral or hyperspectral) imaging is an active field of research with many potential applications in different fields. Each element of the captured scene is specified in the spectral image by the spectral reflectance factor. This measurement is independent of the particular illumination of the scene and allows the colorimetric computation in a device-independent colour space for any chosen illuminant and any observer. This thesis describes the project and construction of a compact spectrophotometric camera, which can be used in both portable and in-situ applications. The compactness is made possible by a suitable image spectral scanning based on an Induced Transmission Filter (ITF). This filter is made by a set of thin-film coatings of dielectric materials with high and low refraction index, whose shape like a wedge induces a wavelength selective transmittance, continuously variable along one direction and uniform in the perpendicular direction. Such a filter, classified as Linearly Variable Filter (LVF), operates continuously from 430nm to 940nm and allows hyperspectral imaging. In traditional scanners the whole apparatus is moved along a path as long as the scene, whereas in this instrument the camera body is still and the LVF is the only moving part. The sequence of operations for wavelength and radiometric calibrations are discussed. The expected acquisition times and number of images as a function of the spectral sampling step are considered. The resulting properties make the instrument easy to use and with short acquisition times. Moreover, overviews of the historic evolution of colour vision fundamentals, colour spaces and spectral imaging technology are given for introducing the reader to the essential concepts useful for the understanding of the text