Simulating discoloration in cultural heritage garments provides insights into their history and aids their preservation. This tool uses digital technologies to simulate colour changes and restoration in textiles using data from mockups, reference images and fading data.

It segments fugitive colours with a 2D parameterized colour-cue-based map over a 3D surface, followed by appearance transfer from mockups that mimic the material’s composition. The fading of textiles is simulated using texture images from various sources to depict the object’s colour at specific times. The tool was used to visualise a 20th-century kimono (V&A FE.422-1992) and a 19th-century Victorian dress (V&A T.7-1926) from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection, and has the potential to assist specialists in restoration decisions and support deeper engagement for non-specialist audience in restoration decisions.

The Simtex tool offers three modes of visualization: Mockup appearance, where the material maps of the mockups (both aged and unaged) can be applied to the fugitive colours for appearance-aware construction; Spectral unmixing, which combines the accelerated aging data of the mockups with spectral unmixing techniques to find a correlation between the fading of the mockup and the object, represented by texture images showing a sequence of fading applied to the segmented fugitive colours; and Reference image data, where textures from reference documentation images representing the object in the past can be applied to fugitive colours to visualize restoration. The mockup appearance mode demonstrates an example where the kimono is applied with both faded and unfaded mockups in the fugitive regions.

The mockup appearance mode showing different visualizations: unfaded, regions of interest, and faded

Credits

• Primary credits: Saptarshi Neil Sinha (Fraunhofer IGD), Irina-Mihaela Ciortan (NTNU), Brenda Doherty (CNR SCITEC)
• Secondary credits: Lucia Burgio , Richard Palmer (V&A), Catarina Pinto (CNR SCITEC), Faïçal Selka (IMKI), Michael Weinmann (TU DELFT)

Learn more

• Sinha, Saptarshi Neil, Irina Ciortan, Tom Kneiphof, Paul Julius Kühn, Lucia Burgio, Richard Palmer, Catarina Pinto, David Buti, Letizia Monico, Reinhard Klein, Arjan Kuijper, and Michael Weinmann. 2025. “An Atlas-based Approach for Appearance-aware Virtual 3D Restoration and Simulation of Fading in Fugitive Textiles.” In Digital Heritage, edited by Stefano Campana, Daniele Ferdani, Holger Graf, Gabriele Guidi, Zackary Hegarty, Sofia Pescarin, and Fabio Remondino. The Eurographics Association. https://doi.org/10.2312/dh.20253147.