There exists, in film archives all over the worlds, an immense amount of historical films that have not yet been digitized and are therefore not available to the general public. While digitization efforts are under way in some countries, the scanners currently available are not suited for historical film material. This is especially true for the capturing of colors. Over the course of film history, more than 200 color processes have been developed, but professional film scanners on the markets are designed for modern film stock. The result is they are not adjusted to capture all the information present in historical color films.
The goal of PoC VeCoScan was to develop a multi-spectral and versatile core film scanner unit which is able to capture and accurately reproduce a wide array of color films. To this end, the team built an experimental multispectral scanner that is able to scan up to 25 spectral bands – compared to the three bands used in regular scanners. In addition, the scanner is able to switch between different light sources. While commercial scanner all use a diffuse light source, our scanner also offers condensed light which corresponds to the light source used in analog cinema projection.
Detailed measurements of historic film stock as well as historical research allowed us to develop the software necessary to render the colors true to their appearance in projection.
In summary, the project was a complete success. We have built a semi-automated system which, without any human intervention, delivers results that are far superior to any solution in the market. The exceptional quality of our work has been confirmed in two expert workshops where archivists, film scholars, service providers, and technicians had the opportunity to compare the results of our scanner directly with an analogue projection of the original film material. The overall consensus was that our prototype delivers far more accurate results than any scanner on the market.
Based on the positive evaluation, the scanner design and image processing software will be licensed to professional clients and scanner manufacturers.
