Google's new gigapixel camera captures every paint stroke in famous artwork

Cancel that trip to the Louvre. You'll never get closer to master art works than through Google's freakishly powerful, robotic Art Camera.

Google's Cultural Institute is filled with hundreds of thousands of artifacts that you can view online, and about 200 of them are gigapixel images of famous works of art. There are, naturally, millions more of such artworks you can see in person museums around the world.

Google is sending some museums this powerful new camera for free.

IMAGE: GOOGLE

But now, with its new robotic Art Camera, Google is automating the process of ingesting these works and putting them online, so you'll be able to see even more without leaving the house. Google has announced a new camera and the online availability of 1,000 new gigapixel images on Tuesday via its official blog.

The device uses sonar and laser to both focus and line up portions of the works, which it photographs bit by bit. Every image captures the colors and brush strokes that went into making each masterwork in astonishing detail. The system automatically composes the thousands of pieces that make up a piece of art into a cohesive whole.

The Port of Rotterdam by Paul Signac

IMAGE: GOOGLE

Online, you can step back virtually from the art to see it in full or zoom in to any section until you are staring at a brush stroke. The effect is especially striking with impressionists works like The Port of Rotterdam by Paul Signac.

The robotic nature of the new camera means that museums around the world can capture these incredibly detailed images without having to send their artwork outside of the museum and without assistance from Google.

We want to give museums the tools they need to do this important work, so we're sending a fleet of these cameras from museum to museum around the world—for free," wrote Google Cultural Institute Engineer Ben St. John in the blog post.

Google couldn't tell us how much the camera costs or what it cost to build, though they did confirm that it is not for sale. They also noted that the Art Camera is available to any Google Cultural Institute partner who already has at least 50 works uploaded to the platform.

Google's new gigapixel camera sees every paint stroke in famous artwork

Cancel that trip to the Louvre. You'll never get closer to master art works than through Google's freakishly powerful, robotic Art Camera.

Google's Cultural Institute is filled with hundreds of thousands of artifacts that you can view online, and about 200 of them are gigapixel images of famous works of art. There are, naturally, millions more of such artworks you can see in person museums around the world.

Google is sending some museums this powerful new camera for free.

IMAGE: GOOGLE

But now, with its new robotic Art Camera, Google is automating the process of ingesting these works and putting them online, so you'll be able to see even more without leaving the house. Google has announced a new camera and the online availability of 1,000 new gigapixel images on Tuesday via its official blog.

The device uses sonar and laser to both focus and line up portions of the works, which it photographs bit by bit. Every image captures the colors and brush strokes that went into making each masterwork in astonishing detail. The system automatically composes the thousands of pieces that make up a piece of art into a cohesive whole.

The Port of Rotterdam by Paul Signac

IMAGE: GOOGLE

Online, you can step back virtually from the art to see it in full or zoom in to any section until you are staring at a brush stroke. The effect is especially striking with impressionists works like The Port of Rotterdam by Paul Signac.

The robotic nature of the new camera means that museums around the world can capture these incredibly detailed images without having to send their artwork outside of the museum and without assistance from Google.

"We want to give museums the tools they need to do this important work, so we're sending a fleet of these cameras from museum to museum around the world—for free," wrote Google Cultural Institute Engineer Ben St. John in the blog post.

Google has not yet responded to a request for comment about the cost of each camera and how it is selecting recipient museums.

Go backstage at the Sydney Opera House with Google's virtual museum

The sails of the Sydney Opera House are recognisable around the world, but the space beneaththem remains largely hidden.

On Wednesday, the building and the Google Cultural Institute, an initiative that hosts virtual museums from around the world, announced a new partnership that will see more than 1,000 of the House's artefacts posted online. The digital collection includes sketches from the original architect, Jørn Utzon, as well as early footage of the building under construction.

A 360-degree video experience will let visitors explore backstage between acts, whether online or through the company's budget virtual reality headset, Google Cardboard. New Google Street View footage will also take users to the harbour forecourt or onto the opera stage.

The Sydney Opera House is not the first Australian location with a rich cultural heritage to join the Google Cultural Institute — the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Australian War Memorial also have works and stories online, among others.

"The opportunity that the world will now have is to see the Opera House not from the traditional vision or the imagery that is etched in their minds, but they will now get a unique opportunity to explore inside," New South Wales Deputy Premier and Minister for the Arts Troy Grant said at the launch event in Sydney Wednesday. 

"They will get a unique understanding of what makes this building so very special."

Australians can expect the House to be explored online by a very international crowd, Amit Sood, director of the Google Cultural Institute, told Mashable Australia. "We have a lot of people coming from the U.S. and Europe," he said, "but our trend, that's very encouraging, is in the top 10 this year we have China, India and Brazil.

"When you have diversity in traffic, that's when you're achieving the goal."

Generally, visitors to the Google Cultural Institute are either culture mavens or merely curious. "That’s where the really exciting opportunity is," Sood said. "People who say 'opera is not for me, or 'fine art is not for me' — it's inaccessible, it's too posh, it's too old. This user gets exposed to an artwork and then starts travelling around the site and exposed to new things."

Part of Ove Arup's sketch ideas for the vaulted roof of the Sydney Opera House.

IMAGE: COURTESY RIBA, LONDON, ENGLAND, SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Sood could not share which institution globally is most visited online, but suggested classic works are perennial favourites. "The most popular is usually the fine arts section, to start with. Van Gogh's "Starry Night" has been one of our leading artworks for awhile, but that's changing quickly," he said. "We're starting to see contemporary and modern art coming into focus."

For Australian cultural institutions, Sood said the potential for collaboration was just getting started. Beyond buildings and the fine arts, however, he's keen on bringing more pieces of intangible culture online, and invites people to reach out to the group with suggestions.

"Things that you can't go touch or see in a museums," he said. "I'm interested to partner with institutions in Australia to tell stories about Australia ... around sport, around landscape, around biodiversity."

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