SteadyPick

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

SteadyPick is a project co-financed by the European Union and the Lazio Region through the Operational Program POR LAZIO FESR 2014-2020 as part of the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3), the smart specialization strategy of the Lazio Region.

SteadyPick is an advanced system for the non-invasive analysis of pictorial works, coupled with an intelligent database, capable of acquiring, combining and offering vital information for the conservation and restoration of works of art, as well as for the evaluation of provenance and authenticity of the same. SteadyPick combines several non-invasive analysis tools, including color profiling systems based on Artificial Intelligence for multispectral analysis, integrating them with each other and with additional sensors for optimal data acquisition. This “multi-sensor” system will allow to carry out various analyses (which today require different instruments) in an accurate, repeatable, easy to perform and low cost way.

Furthermore, the intelligent database, by putting all the acquired data in relation, will allow expert and non-expert users to obtain historical-artistic information on the materials and techniques used, otherwise difficult or impossible to find.

SteadyPick is an integrated solution, capable of providing the operator with all the necessary tools in a unified system, capable not only of acquiring but also of combining the different data, providing more information and a general simplification of the acquisition and repetition processes of measurements.
The SteadyPick system is in fact composed of different combined technologies: multispectral technologies will be integrated with other sensors, each with a specific purpose, making available in a single solution technologies available on the market today only as separate instruments: far infrared (900-1700 nanometers), thermal, 3D with Time of Flight cameras and 3D scanner. The cameras will be assisted by an integrated broadband lighting system, both in continuous light and in pulsed light (flash), for correct data acquisition at all wavelengths, including fluorescence footage. Finally, SteadyPick is equipped with a metric and radiometric reference system for positioning, with an IMU & GPS inertial platform and acquisition of the mutual sensor / subject position by means of precision laser distance meters.

The set of these technologies, suitably combined, is able to transform images of various nature into aggregate, integrated and calibrated measures. All imaging data will be in register, superimposable and will provide a large amount of information for each point (pixel), which – thanks to calibration – will have the validity of certified measurements.

This system is based on the new standardization systems in the representation of all the bands observable by the sensors, and on the algorithm for obtaining perfect image registration, making the most of the simultaneous availability of different bands.

The whole system will have characteristics of extreme portability, operability in any environment, ease of operations, speed of set-up and acquisition, maneuverability even by a single operator and cost-effectiveness of the analyses carried out. All this will therefore make it possible to greatly optimize the current workflow, also giving the measurements an objective value.

All this will be accompanied by software that will have the task of integrating the acquired data and transforming them into structured information with interactive databases. This intelligent archiving system will operate aggregations both between data of the same shot and between data of different (transversal) shots to build value-added information with an impact both on the specific work or generic subject shot, and as a higher level know-how. (for example the set of pigments used globally by an author, which can be used to make a true or false evaluation of yet another work analysed, and so on).