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KEYNOTE / Robert Erdmann

PyCon US · 24.1K views · 2021-06-02 · 41:07

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Overview

Robert Erdmann, a materials scientist at the Rijksmuseum, gives a PyCon keynote on the ultra-high-resolution imaging of Rembrandt's Night Watch. He covers the automated gantry camera system, the Python software that drives it, and the large volumes of image data involved.

On Hacker News

HN commenters recommend it as a technically jaw-dropping talk, and it is the standard reference whenever the Night Watch gigapixel images come up.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2021–2024

Topics

Python, Ruby & scripting languagesVisual arts, photography & architectureData science & statistics
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night watchrembrandtgigapixel imagingpythonrijksmuseumpycon

What people said

rocmcd · 2021-12 · Strong recommendation

I can’t hear about the Rijksmuseum without thinking of the presentation Rob Erdmann did at Pycon on how they imaged Rembrandt’s Night Watch: [VIDEO] Incredible work being done there. I’m glad to see they’re continuing to make headlines.

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oqb23 · 2021-12 · Strong recommendation

Robert Erdmann's keynote at PyCon: [VIDEO] The talk centers around Erdmann's use of python in "combining materials science, computer science, and imaging science to help the world access, preserve, and understand its cultural heritage". The technical complexity and nuance that went into the project was truly jaw-dropping. This was the first talk I immediately felt the urge to share with multiple co-workers & friends.

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stefanpie · 2021-06 · Strong recommendation

Robert Erdmann also gave a keynote talk at PyCon US 2021 about how they used Python for most of digitization and processing of the Night Watch (aka Operation Night Watch). Fascinating talk with tones of technical details. Link: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by PyCon US, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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