Virtual Museum: technology

Digital cameras save artworks

Geoffrey Wirth — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 16:18:39 GMT

Digital imaging is revolutionising the way classical works of art are being preserved for future generations.

The National Gallery in London, UK, is leading the way in the use of this technology to make high quality digital reproductions of paintings.

For the past 10 years, it has been developing a system to monitor tiny changes in the artworks and build up a precise record of the colour of paintings to see if there are any changes over time.

The job has fallen to Vasari (Visual Art System for Archiving and Retrieval of Images), which uses what is called a colourimetric imaging system.

A special digital camera is used to capture each square metre of a painting's surface with a resolution of at least 10,000 by 10,000 pixels

"The kind of camera you would buy in a shop measures just red, green and blue," said Dr Saunders. "But this doesn't really provide us with enough information. So the present system uses seven colour bands, like the seven colours of the rainbow."

Source: BBC News

One touch color restauraton

Geoffrey Wirth — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 11:44:34 GMT

Epson offers an interesting feature in it's new scanners: automatic color resauration. The algorithms used certainly should be looked at carefully, but this could be a work-flow improvement for many digital archives.

THOLOS | in real time, through space

Geoffrey Wirth — Sat, 18 Oct 2003 03:15:17 GMT

With never before-seen quality, and superior operational functions THOLOS enables virtual contact between individuals of various cultures.

Linking major European cities, it will lay the foundation for an entirely new form of communication.