Lapo Governi

Lapo Governi graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florence (Italy) in 1998. He obtained his Ph.D. in Machine Design in 2002 with a dissertation on geometry optimization of thin-walled components. At the same University, he undertook a research associate position in 2002 working on Computer Aided Design and automated inspection and visual characterization of industrial products. In 2005 he obtained a position as Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Florence, where he presently heads the Computational Geometry and Reverse Engineering work group. His research interests are mainly 3D Modeling, Compuational Geometry, Computer Aided Design and Reverse Engineering. His recent work focused on 3D reconstruction from technical hand drawings and pictorial artworks

Visually impaired people are prevented from equal access to the world’s visual culture. Despite the fact that all over the world several initiatives based on the interaction with sculptures and tactile three- dimensional reproductions or architectural aids on scale are quite commonly diffused, a “sensory barrier” between blind people and pictorial artworks still exists, obviously due to their intrinsic 2D format. Translation of paintings into tactile models in the form of bas-reliefs is recognized to be one of the most effective ways for breaking down such a barrier, thus allowing a tangible improvement of the blind people’s accessibility to artworks. A number of institutions worldwide host tactile sections presenting hand sculpted bas-reliefs and high-reliefs reproducing paintings. Considering their success and in order to help the diffusion of this kind of initiatives, it looks appealing to try to provide some automation to the visual-tactile “translation” process. Moreover, If one considers the huge development 3D printing technology is undergoing, it is not unlikely that, in the near future, everyone will have the opportunity of printing 3D objects at home. Moving from these considerations, it makes sense to think of a software tool helping people to build 3D representations of paintings. In the last two years, after an initial phase dedicated to assess possible representation strategies, a group of researchers working at the of the University of Florence have tried to think of a computer-based approach for the semi-automatic generation of tactile 3D models starting from paintings.