WetPaint is an interface for a touchscreen display that allows users to scrape through layers of an image. I worked with Leonardo Bonanni at the Tangible Media Group of the MIT Media Lab on the project, and I was the head software engineer for the project. For the original installation, we obtained scans of a da Vinci painting made with different wavelengths of light. The visible layer is what you normally see, the infrared layer allows you to see the undersketch, the ultraviolet layer shows pigment information, and the x-ray layer shows the grain of the wood board and cracks in the paint.

We integrated the program with Flickr.com, where we store the images along with audio recordings about the images in notes. As the user explores the painting, audio recordings play, which point out especially noteworthy parts of the painting. Users can also leave their own audionotes on layers of the image.

WetPaint is not only useful for exporing the history of paintings but can also be used to explore any set of multi-layered images such as maps and scans of the human body.

We submitted a note on WetPaint to CHI 2009, and it was accepted.

For a demo of WetPaint, click here