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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Latest publications

• Virginio Cantoni, Luca Goretti, Mirto Musci, Alessandra Setti (2025). Virtual reconstruction of frescoes using generative AI: the case study of Mirabello castle, in Vito Cappellini ed., Electronic Media & the Visual Arts: EVA 2025, Florence, 26 May 2025, Leonardo Libri srl, pp. 22-27, ISBN: 978-88-596-2494-3.
• Martina Bellotti, Virginio Cantoni, Piercarlo Dondi, Alessio Gullotti, Luca Lombardi, Mauro Mosconi, Mirto Musci, Alessandra Setti (2024). 3D modeling for promotion of historical buildings: Mirabello Castle, past and present, in Vito Cappellini ed., Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts: EVA 2024 Florence, 27 May 2024, Florence, Polistampa, pp. 21-26.
• 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.
• Virginio Cantoni, Mauro Mosconi, Alessandra Setti (2023). New Technologies and the Support and Accessibility of Cultural Heritage, in Proceedings of the 24^th International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies - CompSysTech’23, University of Ruse (Bulgaria), 16-17 June 2023, pp. 1-8, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, United States, DOI:10.1145/3606305.3606336.
• 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.
• Virginio Cantoni, Elena Fede, Luca Lombardi, Mirto Musci, Alessandra Setti, Nikolay Stoimenov, Deborah Tandurella (2023). 3D Sculptures of the Ark of St. Augustine: the Apostles and the Angelic Hierarchies, in Vito Cappellini ed., Electronic Imaging & the Visual Arts: EVA 2023 Florence, 5 June 2023, Florence, Edizioni Polistampa, pp. 32-39.