Identification of geometrical shapes in paintings and its application to demonstrate the foundations of geometry in 1650 B.C

In this paper, an original general methodology is introduced to establish whether a handmade shape corresponds to a given geometrical prototype. Using this methodology, one can decide if an artist had the intention of drawing a specific mathematical prototype or not. This analysis is applied to the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on image processing 2005-07, Vol.14 (7), p.862-873
Main Authors: Papaodysseus, C., Exarhos, M., Panagopoulos, T., Triantafillou, C., Roussopoulos, G., Pantazi, A., Loumos, V., Fragoulis, D., Doumas, C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Applied sciences
Archaeology - methods
Artificial Intelligence
Cities and towns
Exact sciences and technology
Foundation of geometry via image processing
Geometry
Greece
Image analysis
Image Enhancement - methods
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods
Image processing
image processing on paintings
image shape analysis
Information Storage and Retrieval - methods
Information, signal and communications theory
Pattern analysis
Pattern recognition
Pattern Recognition, Automated - methods
prehistoric geometry via pattern extraction
Prototypes
Shape
Signal and communications theory
Signal processing
Signal representation. Spectral analysis
Signal, noise
Spirals
Telecommunications and information theory
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Summary:In this paper, an original general methodology is introduced to establish whether a handmade shape corresponds to a given geometrical prototype. Using this methodology, one can decide if an artist had the intention of drawing a specific mathematical prototype or not. This analysis is applied to the 1650 B.C. wall paintings from the prehistoric settlement on Thera, and inferences of great archaeological and historical importance are made. In particular, strong evidence is obtained suggesting that the spirals depicted on the wall paintings correspond to linear (Archimedes) spirals, certain shapes correspond to canonical 48-gon and 32-gon, while other shapes correspond to parts of ellipses. It seems that the presented wall paintings constitute the earliest archaeological findings on which these geometrical patterns appear with such remarkable accuracy.
ISSN:1057-7149
1941-0042
DOI:10.1109/TIP.2005.849297