The AerariumChain Scan kit

The Scan kit is what AerariumChain brings into your galleries and storerooms to digitize a collection. Every technique in the kit is non-contact and cold-light: the work is never touched and never exposed to harmful radiation beyond a conservator's ordinary examination lamps. Three complementary captures build the digital record of each piece, all conducted with the AerariumChain Scan application, which you download from the Hub.

Three ways of seeing the work

The form: 3D scanning

Professional structured-light scanners (Artec Eva for larger volumes, Artec Spider for fine carving and ornament, or both together) record the exact three-dimensional form of sculpture, decorative arts and objects, with their surface color. The result is a faithful digital body of the work, ready for the Hub's automatic processing and for study in the 3D viewer.

The surface: gigapixel photography

A medium-format camera (the reference body is a Fujifilm GFX100S II, 102 megapixels, with a 120 mm macro lens; Sony and Canon bodies are also supported) photographs the surface in overlapping cells, later merged into a single plate of billions of pixels. The operator states the intended resolution on the work, in pixels per inch, and the app plans and guides the whole sequence. Multi-shot Pixel Shift capture is available where the utmost fidelity is required. On the finished plate you read the craquelure, the weave of the canvas, the individual touch of the brush.

Beneath the surface: multispectral imaging

With an infrared-converted medium-format camera and a guided sequence of filters, the kit records the work band by band: visible, infrared reflectography at 720 and 850 nm, and ultraviolet. Underdrawings, pentimenti, old retouching and later interventions, invisible in ordinary light, appear in the spectral layers, which remain attached to the work in the Hub.

Light and color you can trust

• Calibrated lighting. JINBEI studio LED lights, controlled from the app, in the standard two-light arrangement at 45 degrees: even, repeatable, gentle illumination.
• Color governed by ColorChecker. Every session includes a ColorChecker Classic target. The app measures color accuracy patch by patch as Delta E 2000, verifies white balance and exposure, and files the color report with the capture. What you see in the viewer is what stood on the easel.
• Coverage verified. Live view, focus and framing analysis, and automatic checking that neighbouring gigapixel cells truly overlap.

From the easel to the Hub

1. 3D sessions are packaged and uploaded securely; the Hub's automatic processing turns them into models ready for study.
2. Gigapixel captures are assembled and published to the Gigapixel viewer.
3. Every capture is tied to the work's record in the Catalog, so form, surface and spectral layers never drift apart.

The kit is operated with the AerariumChain Scan app; campaigns are kept in order with Site Manager.