The Scrovegni Chapel Moves Into the Future: An Innovative Internet of Things Solution Brings New Light to Giotto’s Masterpiece

Abstract

This paper presents a complete architecture of an innovative wireless sensor network able to real-time monitor and control complex lighting systems such as the newly installation at the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy, representing the first world example in cultural heritage field. The realization effectively creates the Internet of Things paradigm, since all its components are directly connected to the Internet and each other thanks to global IPv6 addresses. The new IoT lighting system represents a "restoration of perception" project because the luminaries can be controlled in intensity and color temperature based on natural light and the desired rendering. In the initial phase, specifically designed sensors measure indoor lighting variations and this monitoring will be extended for a sufficient time to determine the proper control actions. Furthermore, besides adjusting the illuminance and color temperature for aesthetic and perceptual purposes, the system can also real-time monitor and control a variety of environmental parameters, fundamental for cultural heritage conservation, providing long-term studies of correlations between artificial light, natural light, and lighting performance, and also to evaluate over time the conservative aspects correlating them with any other critical environmental condition. The control of exposure to artificial light is also important in other contexts because light can interfere with biological processes controlled by endogenous circadian rhythms, with possible negative consequences for health results. Finally, this architectural solution can be extended to a complete Smart City system that integrates cultural heritage as one of the countless elements to be monitored and controlled in the city.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft Solutions for IoT: Architectures and a Performance Comparison

“…According to [5] Smart City is a fragmented scenario where common challenges are related to reliability, scale and timeliness, whereas in a healthcare IoT solution data security and privacy by users are the main challenges [52]. Device management and analytics capabilities would be much more important for an industrial and cultural heritage [53] IoT application. They can involve thousands of sensors to monitor different parameters inside the same environment.…”

The IoT as a Key in the Sensitive Balance between Development Needs and Sustainable Conservation of Cultural Resources in Italian Heritage Cities

“…Indeed, there is no meaningful sign of deep connection among resources or systems of resources. Only a sort of 're-seaming' is obtained with the use of technologies similar to those spread in the whole urban system, such as for example IoT lighting systems [95]. Otherwise, heritage is not considered in its entirety, e.g., as a relevant component in the urban-scale conceptual declinations of "Smart Cities" (2.15) or urban "Digital Twins".…”

Telecommunications in the ICT Age: From Research to Applications

“…Contextually, also our research studies about WSN and the IoT were successful applied and tested in a variety of case studies. Starting from the development and performance evaluation of protocols and complete architectures for IoT systems [57], we have demonstrated their potentiality in a series of application sectors such as environmental monitoring and control in the cultural heritage field [64], seismic and structural health monitoring [65], AAL [70], location services [69], e-Health systems [52,67], and Wireless Body Sensor Network [1,68]. In fact, the proposed IoT solutions can be used in many application fields with great success in terms of costs and resources optimization, variety of implemented features, level of customization and expandability of each solution.…”