Phase One: The fully automated and optimised multispectral imaging solution

COPENHAGEN, 19 May 2022 – Phase One has optimised the industry’s first fully automated, high-resolution multispectral imaging (MSI) system.

The Phase One Rainbow MSI simplifies multispectral imaging: the software accurately and non-invasively captures, processes and analyses photographs of paintings, works of art and old texts invisible to the human eye, and identifies and classifies details, at a speed never seen before.

The Phase One Rainbow MSI is the only system currently available that is capable of a fully automated 150 MP workflow. The software supports “multiband” and “narrowband” imaging, that is, multi-band and narrow-band imaging, in compliance with the “Charisma” guidelines. Thanks to working in a very wide dynamic range, it captures even the smallest image details and traces and supplies them for post-processing. The simplicity and reliability of the software make it usable by anyone, even without technical expertise.

“The automation of the Rainbow MSI solution replaces the tedious, complex and error-prone process of manual multispectral imaging,” said Eric Joakim, the product manager. “Thanks to the reduced exposure time we get a faster workflow, which helps protect fragile objects, and we get a perfect image right from the first capture.”

New features of the Phase One Rainbow MSI Solution

The new Standard configuration of the high-resolution Phase One iXH 150MP or iXG 100MP camera, together with the Rainbow MSI Solution, now offers new tools for faster calibration and faster processing:

- Analysis module for “Narrowband” and “Multiband”, that is, multi-band and narrow-band, image sets too

- Analysis tool – results quickly and easily:

- principal component analysis

- Independent component analysis

- Clustering (K-Means)

- Filtering images by the 2D histogram of PCA channels

- The Spectral Readout tool helps identify and classify materials

- “Narrowband” and “Multiband”, that is, narrow-band RGB conversion: creates a full-colour image by merging the “Narrowband” images.

With the Rainbow MSI solution, after the initial calibration process, the software can create files from the resulting image “stack” that can be captured and processed with a single click – saving time compared with the manual workflow.

The system delivers flawlessly exposed image stacks with perfectly aligned images, which enable and simplify their post-capture analysis. It supports multiband (UV, visible, IR) and narrowband (16 individual wavebands from UV to IR) multispectral imaging, to facilitate a wide range of applications. The software offers image capture, processing and the use of image stack analysis by any method.

Automating multispectral analysis means that even untrained people will be able to undertake multispectral imaging projects. Moreover, because the process is much faster, researchers and heritage conservators may consider digitising a whole book instead of photographing just a few pages. If the object is a large painting that requires multi-step, repeated capture, this automated workflow would make the project more feasible.