Tailoring X-ray tomography techniques for cultural heritage research

Visualizing the internal structure is a crucial step in acquiring knowledge about the origin, state, and composition of cultural heritage artifacts. Among the most powerful techniques for exposing the interior of cultural heritage objects is computed tomography (CT), a technique that computationally forms a 3D image using hundreds of radiographs acquired in a full circular range. The diversity in materials, shapes and sizes of cultural heritage objects poses a challenge for the broad application of this technique, since each scan needs to be tailored to the object. Moreover, the lack of affordable and versatile CT equipment in museums, combined with the challenge of transporting precious collection objects, currently keeps this technique out of reach for most cultural heritage applications.

In this thesis, we explore how CT imaging can be further integrated in cultural heritage applications by
1) integrating expert feedback into the data acquisition process,
2) tailoring acquisition methods to obtain specific information,
3) developing a low-cost method to use in-house X-ray facilities for 3D CT imaging and
4) providing tools to interactively visualise and inspect the CT data.