Our applications emphasize how new digital technologies can be used for analysis, promotion, dissemination, and accessibility of cultural heritage. The initiatives cover the area of virtual heritage and can be categorized based on their function:

• 3D Reconstruction (promotion of local heritage with digital multimedia presentations of existing artworks, virtual thematic models of ancient cities and lost/stolen artworks, serious online games),
• Accessibility of Works of Art (tactile images of 2D paints),
• Augmented Reality and Multimedia Applications (gaze interaction with artworks, digital recontruction of damaged frescoes, interactive applications for museum visitors),
• Image Processing (analysis, preventive conservation, and restoration of artworks and manuscripts).

In particular, since 2014 is active a collaboration with the Arvedi Laboratory of Non-Invasive Diagnostics for the application of artificial vision and 3D modeling techniques in the study of historical musical instruments preserved in the Violin Museum of Cremona. In this context, a collaboration with the Universitè Paris Sud is focused on the creation of new algorithms for the identification of alterations on the surface of historical violins.

The project Pavia Digital City has promoted synergies and partnerships between the world of higher education and the local community. It includes the virtual reconstruction of the city of Pavia in the 16^th century and the 3D modeling of an articulated sculpture dated 1362, the Ark of St. Augustine, located in Pavia in the church of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro. It has been developed in the educational context of the Computer Vision course for the Master’s degree in Computer Engineering of the University of Pavia, with the application of the Experiential Learning strategy to teach 3D computer graphics, with a focus on local cultural assets. The students’ involvement successfully increased, with 70 students engaged (a.y. 2015–2016 and 2016–2017) in the city of Pavia and 105 students (a.y. 2017–18, 2018–19, and 2019–2020) in the Ark of St. Augustine.

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Our latest Journal publications on Digital Humanities

• Piercarlo Dondi, Marco Porta (2023). Gaze-Based Human–Computer Interaction for Museums and Exhibitions: Technologies, Applications and Future Perspectives, in Electronics, 12(14):3064, DOI:10.3390/electronics12143064.
• Alireza Rezaei, Emanuel Aldea, Piercarlo Dondi, Sylvie Le Hégarat-Mascle, Marco Malagodi (2023). Multi-temporal image analysis for preventive conservation of historical musical instruments, ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, Volume 16, Issue 2 Article No.: 35, pp. 1–19, DOI:10.1145/3575866.
• Piercarlo Dondi, Marco Porta, Angelo Donvito, Giovanni Volpe (2022). A gaze-based interactive system to explore artwork imagery, in Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces, 16, pp. 55-67, Springer, DOI:10.1007/s12193-021-00373-z.
• Alireza Rezaei, Sylvie Le Hégarat-Mascle, Emanuel Aldea, Piercarlo Dondi, Marco Malagodi (2022). A-contrario framework for detection of alterations in varnished surfaces, Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, Volume 83, February 2022, DOI:10.1016/j.jvcir.2021.103357.
• Giacomo Fiocco, Sebastian Gonzalez, Claudia Invernizzi, Tommaso Rovetta, Michela Albano, Piercarlo Dondi, Maurizio Licchelli, Fabio Antonacci, and Marco Malagodi (2021). Compositional and Morphological Comparison among Three Coeval Violins Made by Giuseppe Guarneri “del Gesù” in 1734, Coatings 2021, 11(8), 884, DOI:10.3390/coatings11080884. Journal