Google's Art Camera Captures the Fine Details of Paintings
Posted on May 19, 2016
Google has unveiled a new art camera that museums can use to photograph priceless works of art. The camera was developed by the Google Cultural Institute. Google wants its special cameras to travel to the world's museum and record gigapixel images.
The Art Camera is a robotic camera. It was built by Google to create gigapixel images faster and more easily. A robotic system steers the camera automatically from detail to detail. The camera then takes hundreds of high resolution close-ups of each painting. The camera is equipped with a laser and a sonar to measure the distance of the artwork and focus on each brush stroke. Google's software takes the thousands of close-up shots and stitches them together into one image.
Google says in the announcement, "Many of the works of our greatest artists are fragile and sensitive to light and humidity. With the Art Camera, museums can share these priceless works with the global public while ensuring they're preserved for future generations. We want to give museums the tools they need to do this important work, so we're sending a fleet of these cameras from museum to museum around the world-for free."
Here is a video about how the Art Camera works: