Google "Art Camera"

[John Nollendorfs]

I wonder if Google will start selling these too? Doesn't look like it includes any kind of lighting system, which is key to copying art.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/17/11686296/art-camera-google-cultural-institute

[rdonson]

Seems likely this will become a product that Google sells.

You're correct about lighting and spectrophotography to ensure accurate recreation.

I'm just guessing but Google may be doing this for free in an effort to copy works of art and make them available at some time.  Kind of like what they've done with books.  Many museums would likely balk at Google making art work available online for free.

[donbga]

Many museums would likely balk at Google making art work available online for free.

I can't see why they would. I think that would be a great impetus to get more people into museums.

From the American Alliance of Museums website:

There are approximately 850 million visits each year to American museums, more than the attendance for all major league sporting events and theme parks combined (483 million in 2011). By 2006, museums already received an additional 524 million online visits a year just from adults, a number that continues to grow.

[John Nollendorfs]

Google already has a limited number of the art works on line here! While you can zoom in to see high rez detail, they don't allow you to simply "copy" hi rez files with a right click.
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/collections?q

[rdonson]

I can't see why they would. I think that would be a great impetus to get more people into museums.

One thought.  If Google shared the high rez pieces of work or if the work were somehow able to leak out then a high quality print of the original art could be made.  That might reduce the value of the original.  I have seen reproductions of art that wouldn't fool an art museum but they are high enough quality to appeal to a wide audience. 

[rdonson]

The article is too vague. No mention of the lighting or digitization process, it doesn't even say how many Megapixels this camera has. I've done art reproduction in the past and achieving the correct lighting and deal with the color calibration process is far more complicated than just setting up a camera and let it do the work for you. Take the Pro out of the equation and you will end up with a huge, very detailed, color-innacurate file, which is useless for archival purposes. However, I'm going to assume that the institutions know this and it's just a matter of how this article was written.

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