Design team members: Sonali Chakraborti & Monica Milanowski
Supervisor: Dr. David Clausi
Background
Masterpieces are precious, irreplaceable pieces of culture that must be protected - from theft, replacement by forgery and to ensure authenticity. A paper by Duane Chartiera and Fred Notehelferb of UCLA's Department of History examines the difficulties in authenticating artworks. They state that proving a work of art is a forgery is relatively easy when compared with the task of finding evidence to prove the work of art is indeed authentic. Furthermore, the art industry has not taken advantage of the technical developments of the Information Age in creating an accessible comparative database. This inhibits the development of a more reliable and scientifically defensible art authentication process.
There are two main methods for verifying an artwork's authenticity: the prevention of loss of established pieces of artwork and utilising human experts to verify artwork of unknown origin. These measures are fallible as the experts may have insufficient skills or data, and the techniques the experts may use tend to be destructive in their process or expensive.
It is apparent that a way to uniquely identify and catalogue a piece of art using methods that do not alter or destroy the painting is needed. Furthermore, this system can be used as an international registry that can be used to protect owners of art should a piece be stolen or its authenticity questioned.
Project description
The goal of this project is to devise a system to capture and store localised images of 2D works of art at high resolutions that will be used to uniquely identify the work. These images will be stored electronically in a secure environment with some level of encryption. A method to securely retrieve these images will be developed, as will a technique for comparing stored images against other sets of images. A process will be defined to duplicate the location and conditions under which the initial sample was taken.
Design methodology
The Systems engineering methodology will be used to define a solution to the stated problem. A seven-stage design process has been developed by Prof. Barry Wills, which he has adapted from the book "The Universal Traveller". The seven stages and their applicability to this project are outlined below.
1. Accept: The team chose to focus on the problem of art authentication. A set of objectives has been defined to limit the scope of the problem.
2. Analyse: Research regarding art, database products, system and image security and existing standards has been carried out to aid in developing a set of criteria and constraints.
3. Define: A set of criteria and constraints are defined in this stage, outlining the qualities a solution should possess.
4. Ideate: Brainstorming is used to generate a variety of designs for the identified components of the system. If solutions to a component already exist, the various products/processes are investigated and their merits detailed to aid in the selection process.
5. Select: Based on the criteria and constraints, decision matrices are used to compare the sets of solutions. Infeasible solutions are discarded and the most advantageous design to each component will be selected for implementation.
6. Implement: The prototype of the chosen solution is constructed.
7. Evaluate: The system is tested to ensure that it meets the objectives and provides a solution to the identified problem.