Mr Eike Friedrich
Nationality: United Kingdom
Year: 2005
Subject Area: Arts and Humanities
Content Based Image Retrieval of a collection of Cross Section images
As part of the process of paintings Conservation it is common to remove microscopic paint samples from the edge of areas of damaged paint. These samples, mounted in resin blocks, are occasionally used for chemical analyses, more often they are viewed under a visible light microscope in the studio. Such observation can provide a very immediate source of information on the artists’ materials and techniques as well as helping to identify problems within the structure of the paint film. The samples resemble geological strata where each paint layer can be seen and a wealth of information derived from it. Automated colour and texture recognition performed on these samples would greatly enhance access and use of stored samples for conservation work, art historical research and teaching. The purpose of the ongoing Wingate Scholarship is to employ state of the art computer image analysis to aid in the searching and selection of a collection of some 5,000 digitised cross section images.
Photograph: Drying defects.