A New Compact VNIR Hyperspectral Imaging System for Non-Invasive Analysis in the FineArt and Architecture Fields

A new compact Specim IQ hyperspectral camera working in the 400-1000 nm range has been launched on the market. Its use in the investigation of different artworks and under diverse environmental conditions will be presented.

Smarticon: a Digital Eco-System for Cultural Heritage. Iconographic Convergences in Art and in World Religions

The recovery of the history of humanity goes through the comprehension of ancient testimonies handed down to us in artistic representations. The innovative tool par excellence is the technologies. Smarticon is an Italian patent for method in charge of studying historical analysis (originated from the morphology of the concept), of examining the phenomenology analysis (which results in the typology and exceeds it) and to the comparative research (which allows to arrive at the hermeneutics ). The comprehension of the transitory meaning of each event is entrusted to the historian who, by recomposing the phenomena, is also able to codify the comparative meanings.

Canals, Cities, Museums, Libraries & Photography: a Reconnaissance Study of Regent’s Canal, London

City waterways are a valuable part of our cultural heritage. Over the years the usage has changed from business to pleasure. Regent’s Canal, cutting across north central London since 1820, has a rich social and industrial history. Much of this history has been and is being captured via photographs. Many of these are being lost due to limited museum resources and disparate collections. This paper reports on phase one of a fifteen-month exploratory research project. The research aims to explore ways of aiding image capture, selection, storage and retrieval. We hope to link with researchers elsewhere, especially in Italy.

Resisting a Total Loss of Digital Heritage Web 2.0 – Archiving & Bridging Thesaurus for Media Art Histories

While Media Art has evolved into a critical field at the intersection of art, science and technology, a significant loss threatens this art form due to the rapid technological obsolescence and static documentation strategies. Addressing these challenges, the Interactive Archive and Meta-Thesaurus for Media Art Research is developed to advance the Archive of Digital Art. www.digitalartarchive.at Through an innovative strategy of ‘collaborative archiving,’ social Web 2.0, 3.0 features foster the engagement of the international Media Art community, and a ‘bridging thesaurus’ linking the extended documentation of the Archive with other databases of ‘traditional’ art history facilitates interdisciplinary and transhistorical comparative analyses.

Cognitive Stages in Rational Thinking - toward Human Technology

The main idea behind this research paper is that modern information and communication technology could be better made to serve human beings, if we could specify more precisely the process of human thought and action. The cognitive stages of rational thinking has been studied from the user interface and product point of view but there does not seem to be any generally accepted model for the dynamics involved in cognitive stages in literature. In addition, a few studies have investigated the cognitive stages in rational thinking process from human centric point of view, i.e. how the skills are actually learned.

At the Intersection of Art, Architecture and Archaeology: 3D Virtualization and Contemporary Heritage

We are at a global transition where disciplines from art to computer engineering intersect in the realm of global digital heritage. This has been facilitated by the development of desktop high-speed computing, inexpensive photogrammetry software, and digital photography. These technologies, and the tools to make them useful both in the lab and on the web, require the appropriate integration of technical skill, artistic license, archaeological background knowledge, and architectural realities.

4D Ray-Space and Ultra-Wide Area FTV

Ultra-wide area FTV is an FTV with very wide viewing zone where motion parallax is realized. 4D orthogonal ray-space is analyzed and applied to ultra-wide area FTV. Ray-space of “a group of rays through one point” is derived in 4D orthogonal ray-space. It is extended to obtain ray-space captured by linear arrangement cameras. View generation of ultra-wide area FTV needs rays that are not captured by real cameras. These rays are synthesized by interpolating the captured ray-space so that the intersections of the captured ray-space and the ray-space of rays emitted from a light source have the same color.

International Standardization of FTV

FTV (Free-viewpoint Television) is visual media that transmits all ray information of a 3D space and enables immersive 3D viewing. The international standardization of FTV has been conducted in MPEG. The first phase of FTV is multiview video coding (MVC), and the second phase is 3D video (3DV). The third phase of FTV is MPEG-FTV, which targets revolutionized viewing of 3D scenes via super multiview, free navigation, and 360-degree 3D. After the success of exploration experiments and Call for Evidence, MPEG-FTV moved MPEG Immersive project (MPEG-I), where it is in charge of video part as MPEG-I Visual. MPEG-I will create standards for immersive audio-visual services.