Digitisation and Measurement of Tangible Heritage: Two Converging Roads?

Luca Pezzati

READY TO REACH OUTConnecting Cultural Heritage Collections and Serving Wider Audiences2016 Conference29-30 June 2016, Amsterdam

LAUNCH OF THE ESFRI ROADMAP 2016 – Amsterdam, 2016 March 10th

distributed research infrastructure for heritage interpretation, preservation, documentation and management

Coordinating CountryItaly

11 Member CountriesBelgiumCyprusCzech RepublicFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryPortugalSpainThe NetherlandsUnited Kingdom

8 Participating CountriesBrazilBulgariaDenmarkIrelandIsraelPolandSloveniaSweden

2016-2019preparatory phase

2021-2025implementation phase

www.e-rihs.eu

a cross-disciplinary collection of advanced tools and services serving a cross-disciplinary community of

researchers

ARCHLABScientific archives for

heritage science

MOLABMobile laboratory for

in-situ diagnostics

FIXLABAccess to large-scale facilities

DIGILABDigital scientific datasets

for heritage science

a study prepared for the EC in 2010 [Poole, N., The Cost of Digitising Europe’s Cultural Heritage] estimates in the order of 100 billion of Euro the cost of digitizing all Europe’s public cultural heritage assets

from the same document: “Digitisation is a loosely-defined term which describes the set of management and technical processes and activities by which material is selected, processed, converted from analogue to digital format, described, stored, preserved and distributed.”

digitising tangible heritage

digitisation

Digitization is the representation of an object, image, sound, document or signal by generating a series of numbers that describe a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called digital representation.

Wikipedia

measuring tangible heritage

scientific instruments measure physical quantities and store them in digital form

well defined protocols make sure measurements are reproducible errors must be assessed

qualitative output no information on errors guidelines not protocols text, 2D and 3D images, audio, video, … mass-production process

quantitative output errors assessed and given measurement protocols all kinds of datasets, including the above quality process

digitising vs. measuring

text images audio video

3D models (artefacts, monuments, buildings, …)

color roughness/texture/glossiness reflectance spectra (X-UV-VIS-NIR-IR), also in image format fluorescence and luminescence (X-UV-IR), also in image format material composition (chemical analysis, physical analysis) inner composition (tomography) …

heritage: what is digitised / measured

• enhance/allow public/remote access to CH• virtual exhibitions• producing physical copies from digital data• gaming

• research made easy (VREs)• research made possible (fragile items, unreachable objects, …)

• document heritage at risk of loss• document heritage purposely lost (destructive measurements)• preserve and transmit knowledge to future generations

why digitising / measuring heritage

Dat

a re

-use

tim

elin

e:

long

-ter

m

sh

ort-

term

are digitisation and measurement due to converge?

Already happening: better and better digitisers approach measurement-quality results better instruments produce denser measurements

Needs boosting: user’s awareness on the outcomes better planning of digitisation projects open data (sharing) of heritage measurement results

could be feasible if we:

document all properties of the object which are reasonably measurable use scientific measurement procedures

- error estimates- protocols- calibrated & certified instruments

develop new digitisers and digitising procedures to mass-measure at reasonable costs

documenting heritage!

Are heritage datasets themselves heritage?

Leon

ardo

: Mad

onna

Virg

in o

f the

Roc

ks (d

etai

l)

Th

e Na

tiona

l Gal

lery

wid

e-ba

nd in

frar

ed im

age

(0.8

-1.7

mic

rons

)

…thank you for your attention!

luca.pezzati@cnr.itwww.e-rihs.eu

Examples of data loss

heritage at risk of loss (collapse)

The

Poes

ia C

ave

Roca

Vec

chia

, Lec

ce

coas

tal c

ave

with

600

sqm

mes

sapi

c/gr

eek/

latin

in

scrip

tions

heritage lost on purpose (destructive measurement)

Pain

t sam

ple

from

The

Pal

ace

of N

esto

re

Pylo

s, 13

th c

entu

ry B

. C.

pyro

lysi

s an

d ga

s ch

rom

atog

raph

y / m

ass

spec

tros

copy

27.50 28.00 28.50 29.00 29.50 30.00 30.50 31.000100200300400500600700800900

10001100120013001400150016001700180019002000210022002300240025002600

Time-->

Abundance40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 2400

500100015002000250030003500400045005000550060006500700075008000

m/z-->

Abundance57

97

110

8270 124

138 194180 208152 166

222

hexadecanenitrile

40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 2600500

10001500200025003000350040004500500055006000

m/z-->

Abundance 57

75 97

11085124

138 222166 236208152 194180 250 265

octadecanenitrile

courtesy of M.P. Colombini, University of Pisa and ICVBC CNR

Our possible Q&As about Renaissance (600ys ago):

Q. What was the sound of music, or of speech? A. Forever lost. No hi-fi systems around…

Q. What was the appearance of artworks and buildings? A. Lost: no photography. Only partial descriptions in paintings.

Q. What were the original colours of paintings? A. Forever lost. No colorimetry available in 1480.

looking to the past…

Possible Q&As about us, in 600ys to come (2616A.D.):Q. What was the sound of music in 2000?A. Just open the audio files and listen… (if we care about long-term preservation)

Q. What was the appearance of artworks and buildings in 2000?A. Look, they saved complete models of cities and museums!(if we care about long-term preservation)

Q. What were the original colours of Keith Haring paintings?A. Ooooops! Why they did not measure them? They had colorimetry since 1931!!!!!

…planning for the future

Examples of heritage datasets

images (2D-mapped)

Leon

ardo

: Virg

in o

f the

Roc

ks (d

etai

l)

The

Nat

iona

l Gal

lery

colo

r im

age

and

wid

e-ba

nd in

frar

ed im

age

multi-spectral images (11 bands, 2D-mapped)

Leon

ardo

: Mad

onna

of t

he Ya

rnwi

nder

(det

ail)

p

rivat

e co

llect

ion

mul

ti-sp

ectr

al s

cann

ing

infr

ared

imag

es

1030 nm 1112 nm 1200 nm 1300 nm 1400 nm

1500 nm 1600 nm 1820 nm1700 nm 1930nm

2265 nm

hyper-spectral images (512 bands, 2D-mapped)

Mae

stro

Gug

lielm

o: S

arza

na’s

Cros

s, 11

38

(det

ail)

Cath

edra

l of S

arza

na

sections (2D-mapped)

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

L

M

Z: 1 mm (1000 pts)

X: 2 cm (4000 pts)

OD level: 16bit

surface relief maps (2D-mapped)

Mic

hela

ngel

o: D

avid

(det

ails)

Gal

lery

of t

he A

ccad

emia

, Flo

renc

e

3D models (2D- or 3D-mapped)

Cattedrale di Pisa

courtesy of INO CNR and R. Scopigno, ISTI CNR

tomography models (3D-mapped)

courtesy of P. Targowski, University of Torun

More on digitisation and conclusions

final cost of mass-digitisation is largely dependent on manpower, not instruments

research can target development of “smart scanners” to support low-cost mass-digitisation

outcomes can boost innovation and industrial development

documenting heritage: sustainability

store for long-term: metadata must include full info of (e.g.): digitization/measurement protocols errors and error estimation strategy extended instrument info (model, calibration, manuals,…) environmental parameters during measurement

e-infrastructures for heritage must address the problems of re-using complex interrelated multi-dimensional data sets

specialized VREs needed

intensive use of 3D models and VR to access/reference/-connect heritage data sets

doumenting heritage: storing & re-using data

new approach needed for digitisation and data preservation

new digitisers needed for low-cost mass-production of quantitative digital data

new tools for data handling and for their use in virtual research environments must be studied

common strategies to be developed in collaboration between “data producer” SCI research infrastructures and e-infrastructures

conclusions