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Cultural Heritage Imaging Science

The last 50 years have seen an impressive development of mathematical methods for the analysis and processing of digital images, mostly for photography and biomedical imaging: the arts have been mostly overlooked in this process, apart from a few exceptional works in the last 10 years. With the rapid emergence of digitization in the arts, however, the arts domain is becoming increasingly receptive to digital image processing methods and the importance of paying attention to this therefore increases.

In this project, we explore multiple imaging applications to Cultural Heritage conversation challenges. We develop a new multi-modal non-invasive mid-infrared technique for detecting sub-superficial defects in fresco walls; we digitally fuse multi-modal data via osmosis filter, unveiling hidden features of artworks; we propose a semi-supervised workflow for the detection and inpainting of defects in damaged illuminated manuscripts form the Fitzwilliam Museum’s collection in Cambridge.

MWIR-TQR Fresco Analysis

VIS-IR Image Fusion

VIS-IR Image Fusion

Virtual Restoration Inpainting

Journal Articles

Parisotto, Simone; Calatroni, Luca; Bugeau, Aurélie; Papadakis, Nicolas; Schönlieb, Carola-Bibiane: Variational Osmosis for Non-linear Image Fusion. In: IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links)
Daffara, Claudia; Parisotto, Simone; Ambrosini, Dario: A multipurpose, dual-mode imaging in the MWIR range for artwork diagnostic: a systematic approach. In: Optics and Lasers in Engineering, 2017. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links)

Book Chapters

Daffara, Claudia; Parisotto, Simone; Mariotti, Paola Ilaria: Infrared Analysis and ‘Thermal Quasi-Reflectography’. In: Leonardo Da Vinci – The Sala delle Asse of the Sforza Castle, pp. 186-199, Silvana Editrice, 2017, ISBN: 9788836636778. (Type: Book Chapter | Links)

Inproceedings

Daffara, Claudia; Parisotto, Simone; Mazzocato, Sara; Mariotti, Paola Ilaria; Ambrosini, Dario: Thermal imaging in the 3-5 micron range for precise localization of defects: application on frescoes at the Sforza Castle. In: Groves, Roger; Liang, Haida (Ed.): Optics for Arts, Architecture, and Archaeology VIII, SPIE, 2021. (Type: Inproceedings | Links)
Parisotto, Simone; Calatroni, Luca; Daffara, Claudia: Digital Cultural Heritage Imaging via Osmosis Filtering. In: Mansouri, Alamin; Moataz, Abderrahim El; Nouboud, Fathallah; Mammass, Driss (Ed.): ICISP 2018: Image and Signal Processing, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 407-415, Springer, 2018. (Type: Inproceedings | Abstract | Links)
Parisotto, Simone; Calatroni, Luca; Daffara, Claudia: Mathematical osmosis imaging for multi-modal and multi-spectral applications in Cultural Heritage conservation. In: Image Processing for Art Investigation, Ghent, 2018. (Type: Inproceedings | Abstract | Links)
Daffara, Claudia; Parisotto, Simone; Mariotti, Paola Ilaria: Mid-infrared thermal imaging for an effective mapping of surface materials and sub-surface detachments in mural paintings: integration of thermography and thermal quasi-reflectography. In: Optics for Arts, Architecture, and Archaeology, International Society for Optics and Photonics 2015. (Type: Inproceedings | Abstract | Links)

PhD Theses

Parisotto, Simone: Anisotropic variational models and PDEs for inverse imaging problems. University of Cambridge, 2019. (Type: PhD Thesis | Abstract | Links)