This technology is currently being tested at The Cloisters museum and gardens, the branch of the Metropolitan Museum devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Located in northern Manhattan, The Cloisters has a collection of approximately 3,000 works of art, most dating from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries, ranging from illuminated manuscripts to polychrome wood sculptures, paintings, and tapestries.

"This pilot project has the potential to become an important tool in the Metropolitan Museum's ongoing efforts to achieve the best environmental conditions for the works of art in our care", says Paolo Dionisi Vici, Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Scientific Research at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"This new technology offers a real-time, detailed picture of the environment, and we are now working on an upgrade that will also monitor the actual reactions of the works of art to the environment. These developments have the potential for us to create 'sensing environments' for works of art that will provide constant feedback, enabling conservators, curators, and facilities experts to fine-tune their approaches to establishing and adapting as necessary the exhibition and storage conditions."

Works of art are very sensitive to fluctuations in temperature, relative humidity, and other environmental conditions. To preserve them for posterity, the climate in the galleries is tightly controlled, and sealed cases are used for the most delicate objects.

Working with experts at the Metropolitan Museum to address the complex environment associated with art conservation, scientists from IBM Research are implementing the comprehensive solution called Low-Power Mote technology. This involves time-stamped data collection through a wireless sensor network, data storage with real-time visualization, modelling, and analysis.

This results in an ultra-low-power physical analytics technique that, combined with cloud computing capabilities, allows micro-environment sensing and more precise and accurate modelling. A distinct feature of this technology lies in its unique analytical capabilities, which leverage several physics-based models for optimum operation, and controls and make it possible to generate and visualize hydrodynamic flows in real time.

Next steps for this technology include expanding over additional galleries of the museum, with the goal of developing an improved understanding of the effect of micro-climatic variations eventually leading to a fundamentally better approach to preservation of the art objects throughout the museum.

"This technology has emerged out of IBM's work on the energy optimization of industrial spaces such as computer datacenters. It represents a migration of this approach to other industrial and public spaces that can employ a vast variety of networked sensors", says Hendrik Hamann, research manager, IBM Research.