Lumiere technology

DEFINITION

A multi-spectral digitization technology, it derives from a camera developed by the French photographer Pascal Cotte. This LT camera projects a ray of light across the painting being studied and reveals many aspects of the painting not seen by the naked eye. LT scans have 240 million digital pixels, a huge pixel increase over previous scanners that insures that nothing goes unnoticed in the painting. One of the many benefits is virtual restoration, meaning an image created that shows what the painting will look like after restoration. Development of the LT camera was funded by the European Union through a grant to Pascal Cotte whose company, Lumiere Technology, does the scanning. Source: Kelly Compton, 'A World of Art, No Longer Invisible', "Fine Art Connoisseur", April 2008, p. 55