Color classification of archaeological fragments

We are developing an automated classification and reconstruction system for archaeological fragments. The goal is to relate different fragments belonging to the same vessel based on shape, material and color, thus the color information is important in the pre-classification process. In this work a color specification technique is proposed, which exploits the fact that the spectral reflectance of materials like archaeological fragments vary slowly. We explain how the acquisition system is calibrated in order to get accurate colorimetric information with respect to archaeological requirements. Experimental results are presented for archaeological objects and for a set of test color patches