Scientists are developing a neural network platform called "Digital Ark" that will be able to recognize details even where a specialist sees only a dark spot, and add missing fragments in accordance with iconographic canons. This was reported to "First Technical" by the press service of RTU MIREA.
An icon is a complex language of symbols, attributes, and characters. The neural network must learn not only to analyze the image, but also to understand the meanings: who is depicted, what plot is embedded, to which school the writing belongs. For this, scientists have already collected a dataset of approximately 6,000 icons.
We conducted an analysis and realized: thousands of icons today are either not identified or are being destroyed, and manual restoration is a long process and not available to everyone. Our "Digital Ark" is an attempt to save the memory that is irretrievably disappearing.
The first site for the project was the Nikolo-Solbinsky Monastery in the Yaroslavl region. Students have already begun photographing icons to train the neural network. Negotiations are underway with the Solovetsky Monastery and specialized universities.