This came from my museum list. Thought some of you might find this new scanner/method interesting. Andrea
Museums of the Future Digital archiving has been in considerable demand in Japan for use with cultural assets, which tend to be both difficult to access and extremely fragile. A team led by Professor Ide Ari of Kyoto University has developed an ultrahigh-resolution large flat-bed scanner that can record objects measuring up to 200 cm in length and 90 cm in width, and a pigment materials estimation system capable of discerning about 1,000 hues of pigments used in Japanese paintings. The research and development work is an outcome of the R&D innovative research under taken by the Japan Science and Techno logy Agency (JST). The scanner technology is based on the technology developed by Dai Nippon Screen Manufacturing Company, a high-tech company in the field based in Kyoto. The scanner that has been developed enables graphic images to be made without damaging the objects being recorded and with superlative levels of accuracy. Conventional camera photography commonly used for digital archiving could, for example, distort images of a square plane to appear like a curved barrel, because of lens aberration. Accurate color reproduction is also difficult when photographing large cultural assets, because lighting conditions change, however imperceptibly, each time a photograph is taken. On the other hand, the non-contact scanner that Professor Ide has developed is ideal for digitizing graphic images and is capable of making images just by passing the scanner over the object under the stable light conditions delivered by proximal light from a light-emitting diode. The graphic materials estimation system, meanwhile, is a system that digitizes pixel data obtained from scanning Japanese cultural assets and estimates the pigments used in them. The system is capable of identifying pigment name, type, origin, raw stone, color sample images, compositional elements, spectral reflectivity, and elements in the pigment, at the same time providing scientific and artistic information such as the age, school of the artist, and deterioration process. Work has begun on the digital archiving of 954 sliding screen paintings that have been designated as important cultural assets at Nijo-jo castle, a World Heritage site. And the development of educational content for the extremely high resolution display system (NHK 4000 super high vision system) is underway at Kyushu National Museum. According to Professor Ide, "The development of content is part of the efforts to search for museum exhibition methods in the future," and experiments are underway to "enable viewing of details of paintings at a microscopic level, something that is not currently possible at museums." ------------------- Source: http://www.japanjournal.jp/tjje/show_art.php?INDyear=07&INDmon=04&artid=d1b5c679c7ac3955305aad035ade3828&page=3 Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
