Cultural Heritage Imaging

Catalog description

This course introduces non-science majors to the primary imaging technologies currently used in the field of cultural heritage, in support of the preservation and conservation of artifacts in museums, archives, libraries, and other institutions. Understanding historical manuscripts and artifacts of historical and cultural heritage significance is an important part of studying both past and present cultures. The use of modern imaging technologies to discover, understand, and preserve these artifacts is becoming an important and rapidly growing field of exploration, and combines aspects of history, languages, material science, and specialty imaging. This course will introduce students to the basic concepts behind the primary imaging technologies used in the field of cultural heritage research, with a focus on passive spectral imaging. The course also provides a more detailed description of various imaging modalities, e.g., spectral, x-ray, 3D, etc., and basic image processing concepts used to extract information from spectral imagery. Real data from cultural heritage image collections will be used as examples for in-class demonstrations, whenever possible. Students also will work on projects related to image collection and processing, as applied to data from works of cultural value.