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KEYNOTE / Robert Erdmann

PyCon US4 HN recommenders · 2021–2024
24K views · talk · evergreen · Uploaded 2021-06-02

Robert Erdmann, a materials scientist at the Rijksmuseum, gives a PyCon keynote on the ultra-high-resolution imaging of Rembrandt's Night Watch. He covers the automated gantry camera system, the Python software that drives it, and the large volumes of image data involved.

HN commenters recommend it as a technically jaw-dropping talk, and it is the standard reference whenever the Night Watch gigapixel images come up.

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7 comments from Hacker News

@stefanpie2021 · in “The Night Watch: The Missing Pieces”

Robert Erdmann also gave a keynote talk at PyCon US 2021 about how they used Python for most of digitization and processing of the Night Watch (aka Operation Night Watch). Fascinating talk with tones of technical details. Link: [VIDEO]

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@rocmcd2021 · in “Rijksmuseum to Stage the Largest Vermeer Exhibition in 2023”

I can’t hear about the Rijksmuseum without thinking of the presentation Rob Erdmann did at Pycon on how they imaged Rembrandt’s Night Watch: [VIDEO] Incredible work being done there. I’m glad to see they’re continuing to make headlines.

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@oqb232021 · in “Ask HN: Best Talks of 2021?”

Robert Erdmann's keynote at PyCon: [VIDEO] The talk centers around Erdmann's use of python in "combining materials science, computer science, and imaging science to help the world access, preserve, and understand its cultural heritage". The technical complexity and nuance that went into the project was truly jaw-dropping. This was the first talk I immediately felt the urge to share with multiple co-workers & friends.

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@erdmann2022 · in “Ultra High Resolution Photo of Night Watch (2022)”

Glad to see this getting exposure on HN. I gave a PyCon keynote [1] last year about how this was done. I've also put the image online in my own viewer [2], which has a few additional features: it encodes the viewing location in the URL and it allows for multi-pane synchronized views [3]. (Please be nice to my server.) I'm happy to answer questions here or on Twitter (@erdmann). [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK]

CitesView on HN
@easytiger2022 · in “717 Gigapixel Image of Rembrandt's Nightwatch”

Seminar on how it was done here by the author [LINK] [VIDEO] 97 rows × 87 cols (8 439) @Hasselblad H6D-400c MS images Size: 925 000 px × 775 000 px (717 GP) Res: 5 µm (5080 ppi) It's a £43k camera on a huge automated gantry system controlled by python software

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@zerd2022 · in “717 Gigapixel Image of Rembrandt's Nightwatch”

In this video [1] he mentions that each 100mp image is around 600MB, which aligns with the size of the 4-shot multi-shot mode of the H6D-400C MS. 8439 photos 579MB would be around 4.7TB in raw format. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]

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@cyberlimerence2024 · in “Ultra high-resolution image of The Night Watch (2022)”

For anyone interested in technical aspects of this, I recommend watching Pycon talk [1] from Robert Erdmann. I bookmarked this couple of years ago. [1] [VIDEO]

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