As of now, the VASARI project is the basis for many research projects. Much work
is being done in the area of texture analysis. It has also been found that connecting
an infrared camera to the system will create images of the underlying drawings. This
finding is useful for the creation of low-res images for public-access systems and
for teaching tools.
In the area of color change measurement, the effects of the VASARI have helped.
This is still a difficult procedure, since in order to measure the change of, say a
pixel, we must somehow place the previous image of the said pixel on top of the present
pixel. This may be complicated, especially when the texture on which the image is
located can or may become warped. When this occurs, we can do a rough overall analysis
of the change of the painting or image. The procedure for this involves creating a third
image based on the deltaE(cmc) values. This image can provide information on where the
greatest amount of aging or other changes are occuring. Also, it is hoped that this
"error-mapping" may even help to see which paintings age more quickly and relate that
rate to environment.
With the original VASARI project, the average color error (based on deltaE (ab) )
in even relatively poor conditions was around 4. In good conditions, that figure was
approximately 3. With the MARC project, that figure was also around 3. Originally,
capture time for an image was in the range of hours, but that figure improved dramatically
with the MARC project as well.
In general archiving studies, it has been found that to get color measurement down
to the precision of "just perceptively different" is possible but would require 10-bit
analog-to-digital conversion, and preferreably 12-bit conversion. The original VASARI
project featured 8-bit conversion, simply because that is what was used by the Kontron
ProgRes 3000. Work is being done to incorporate 12-bit conversion into the VASARI
project.