Cultural Heritage Restoration, and particularly for documentation and diagnosis is performed by specialists that have been educated in the use of specific tools. These tools include a photographic camera which is their main tool for documentation, and a microscope that they are using for diagnostic imaging. These tools, although they evolve they have their limitations in terms of diagnostic capabilities. Particularly, although they increase in spatial resolution, and optical magnification, they are limited in the visible region and moreover in trichromatic vision. This technology, is unable to provide information regarding the material or to acquire images beyond the visible spectrum. For that reason, curators are obliged to buy expensive instruments which are big and/or heavy and require specialized knowledge to use them, or to request the support of a scientific laboratory. As a result, this increases the time and effort of the curators and elevates significantly the final cost for the customer/collector.
Through the use of such technology, important works of art are studied by art historians and scientists, deriving new information about the history of local community, increasing the value of the objects, knowledge about the local culture, and the interest of cultural tourism.
Provide the art conservator with a new tool that increases the quality and speed of the restoration process by means of multispectral imaging. This will allow conservators to harvest new business opportunities and grow their market by reaching new clients that want to preserve cultural heritage. This means larger sites (e.g. frescoes, in situ art works, etc.) can now be intervened at a lower cost, and also be recorded for posterity in high definition and in several spectral layers – this is a disruptive addition to the conservation services that can bring about new markets for cultural heritage SMEs, that is in line with best practices for cultural heritage site preservation. Further, through this project we aim to educate art conservators on the use of this technology and the benefits they can get increasing the quality of documentation in their work.
