Computers enlisted in the detection of art copies and forgeries
The painting of the lean-faced， bearded man is unmistakably a self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. An art historian can tell by looking at the riot* of bold， colorful brushstrokes.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State and Princeton Universities， however， use an analytical tool that surely the troubled Dutch master never imagined： the computer. A picture， after all， is worth more than a thousand words， it can be represented as bits of data， just like a bank account or music on a compact disc， and the researchers have sifted this information through the dispassionate* filter of statistics.
The researchers are quick to say that they don't want to replace art historians. Yet they predict the computer will become an important tool alongside other scientific techniques that have long been used in art scholarship， such as chemical analysis of paint fragments or the use of X-rays to count threads in a canvas.
Making it happen
How do you get a bunch of engineers and statisticians to communicate with people in the subjective* realm of art？ Start with someone who is a member of both worlds.
C. Richard Johnson pursued an early interest in the sciences by attending Georgia Institute of Technology. But once there， he did a study-abroad program in Germany and become captivated* by the works of Rembrandt. Later at Stanford University， he earned a Ph. D. in electrical engineering but also found time for his newfound love， with a minor in art history.
Yet it was not until 2005 that Johnson discovered the work of Penn State's James Z. Wang and his wife， Jia Li， who were performing statistical analysis of Chinese paintings. At Princeton， math professor Ingrid Daubechies was pioneering the use of statistics to analyze images from various fields of science and medicine， such as MRIs. And in the Netherlands， computer scientist Eric Postma had started to analyze the work of van Gogh.
The painting of the lean-faced， bearded man is unmistakably a self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. An art historian can tell by looking at the riot* of bold， colorful brushstrokes.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State and Princeton Universities， however， use an analytical tool that surely the troubled Dutch master never imagined： the computer. A picture， after all， is worth more than a thousand words， it can be represented as bits of data， just like a bank account or music on a compact disc， and the researchers have sifted this information through the dispassionate* filter of statistics.
The researchers are quick to say that they don't want to replace art historians. Yet they predict the computer will become an important tool alongside other scientific techniques that have long been used in art scholarship， such as chemical analysis of paint fragments or the use of X-rays to count threads in a canvas.
Making it happen
How do you get a bunch of engineers and statisticians to communicate with people in the subjective* realm of art？ Start with someone who is a member of both worlds.
C. Richard Johnson pursued an early interest in the sciences by attending Georgia Institute of Technology. But once there， he did a study-abroad program in Germany and become captivated* by the works of Rembrandt. Later at Stanford University， he earned a Ph. D. in electrical engineering but also found time for his newfound love， with a minor in art history.
Yet it was not until 2005 that Johnson discovered the work of Penn State's James Z. Wang and his wife， Jia Li， who were performing statistical analysis of Chinese paintings. At Princeton， math professor Ingrid Daubechies was pioneering the use of statistics to analyze images from various fields of science and medicine， such as MRIs. And in the Netherlands， computer scientist Eric Postma had started to analyze the work of van Gogh.