Development of Thermal Principles for the Automation of the Thermographic Monitoring of Cultural Heritage.

Iván Garrido,Pedro Arias,Stefano Sfarra,Susana Lagüela

doi:10.3390/s20123392

Iván Garrido, Pedro Arias + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s20123392

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Abstract

The continuous deterioration of elements, with high patrimonial value over time, can only be mitigated or annulled through the application of techniques that facilitate the preventative detection of the possible agents of deterioration. InfraRed Thermography (IRT) is one of the most used techniques for this task. However, there are few IRT methodologies, which can automatically monitor the cultural heritage field, and are vitally important in eliminating the subjectivity in interpreting and accelerating the analysis process. In this work, a study is performed on a tessellatum layer of a mosaic to automatically: (i) Detect the first appearance of the thermal footprint of internal water, (ii) delimit the contours of the thermal footprint of internal water from its first appearance, and (iii) classify between harmful and non-harmful internal water. The study is based on the analysis of the temperature distribution of each thermal image. Five thermal images sequences are acquired during the simulation of different real situations, obtaining a set of promising results for the optimization of the thermographic inspection process, while discussing the following recommended steps to be taken in the study for future researches.

Highlights

The conservation of cultural heritage is an increasingly important field for all societies in the21st century, given that heritage structures are key features in the history of humanity
The sample of this work is a mosaic manufactured with different types of artificial defects, which are placed at different depths and positions
This work implies a step forward in the automation of the cultural heritage thermographic monitoring, allowing to optimize the decision-taking for rehabilitation actions in cultural heritage

Summary

Introduction

The conservation of cultural heritage is an increasingly important field for all societies in the21st century, given that heritage structures are key features in the history of humanity. It is vitally important to address the continuous deterioration of heritage structures due to the appearance of different defects caused by ageing, unpredicted events, environmental conditions and incorrect previous restoration treatments [2]. To this end, cultural heritage monitoring is an appropriate solution, consisting of a process of evaluation and tracking the integrity of the heritage structure under study over time. Cultural heritage monitoring allows to apply the maintenance tasks required to slow down and even reduce the deterioration

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