SYDDARTA · SYstem for Digitization and Diagnosis in ART Applications

Cultural heritage monitoring comprehends a sum of technologies, protocols and studies which need to be modernized and automated to reduce costs and process time. Current spectroscopy permits the study and characterisation of the surface of artworks by the inspection of specific spectral bands, by means of different techniques. As a consequence, the sets of results are often difficult or slow to link, compare or process in order to generate global information about the piece-in-study. In this way, a set of analysis processes must be performed over the artwork, involving piece moving, manipulation, transportation, etc, and therefore putting the artwork at risk of deterioration. The main target of SYDDARTA is to develop a pre-industrial prototype for diagnosing the deterioration on movable assets by the acquisition of 3D-hyperspectral imaging through scanning non-destructive techniques. Such images contain spectroscopic information of the piece to be analysed in different bands of the spectrum, giving chemical composition information of the different materials and layers in the actual 3D surface by means of a very narrow screening bandwidth and the use of volumetric digitisation. These analyses are carried out combining mapping, spectroscopic and image processing techniques, based on tunable filters and customised light sources. The expected prototype will be a new portable type of equipment to use in the preventive conservation and monitoring of movable cultural assets and will provide enormous data sets by non-destructive characterisation techniques. Moreover, the equipment will make use a specific database of materials and pigments monitoring that will be exploited as well. The merging of the technologies involved will be suitable for fast authentication and traceability of cultural assets and will improve the monitoring and conservation of artworks in general, as well as facilitating art digitisation sharing between the cultural organisations across Europe. In addition, the expected project results will not be specific to the art and heritage cultural sector, and may be applied to other fields of research, engineering or industry, for example, for biomedicine, manufacturing, food industry, chemistry or recycling. This means a wider market impact and a greater societal benefit inside and out the European Union.