The role of digital technologies in the preservation, analysis, and dissemination of cultural and historical heritage has become increasingly central. Pattern recognition, machine learning, and computer vision now play a key role in this transformation, providing innovative methodologies to digitize, restore, interpret, and enhance artworks, documents, and cultural sites. The digital age has not only broadened access to heritage collections but has also enabled new forms of analysis, revealing patterns and relationships that were previously inaccessible.

At the same time, the convergence of technology and the humanities introduces new challenges and research questions. These range from the reliable digital reconstruction of artifacts and the interpretation of historical data using AI-driven methods, to issues of authorship, authenticity, and ethical considerations surrounding generative AI and cultural production.

This workshop aims to address these emerging challenges by providing a dedicated forum for researchers, professionals, and practitioners to present advances, share experiences, and discuss future directions at the intersection of pattern recognition and cultural heritage applications.

The workshop brings together, for the first time, two established and thematically convergent events promoted by the IAPR Technical Committee 19 (Computer Vision for Cultural Heritage Applications). Specifically, it unifies the International Workshop on Fine Art Pattern Extraction and Recognition (FAPER), which has already seen four successful editions at ICPR and ICIAP, and the International Workshop on Pattern Recognition for Cultural Heritage (PatReCH), which has been organized five times in conjunction with ICPR and ICIAP.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions will undergo double-blind peer review, with at least two reviewers per paper. 

Papers must follow the LNCS format and must not exceed 15 pages including references. Additional pages beyond 15 will incur an extra fee as per ICPR guidelines.

Authors can submit their papers via the EasyChair submission system.

List of Topics

• Computer vision and generative AI for art and cultural heritage

• Automated analysis and transcription of historical manuscripts and documents

• Digital acquisition, representation, and manipulation of cultural artifacts

• Augmented and virtual reality for cultural heritage communication and education

• Image processing, classification, retrieval, and similarity search in the art domain

• Point cloud analysis and segmentation for heritage sites and objects

• 3D reconstruction of historical artifacts and architectural environments

• Serious games, edutainment, and interactive storytelling for cultural heritage

• Knowledge representation, ontology learning, and semantic modeling in cultural heritage

• Robotic and autonomous systems for inspection, conservation, and preservation

• Projects, prototypes, and digital tools for restoration, conservation, and heritage outreach

Organizing committee

• Dario Allegra, University of Catania, Italy
• Giovanna Castellano, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy
• Alessandra Scotto di Freca, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy
• Gennaro Vessio, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy

Invited Speakers

• Guillaume Caron, University of Picardy Jules Verne, France

Publication

Accepted papers will be published in the ICPR 2026 Workshop Proceedings, published in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series by Springer. 

Only full papers (more than 6 pages) will be included in the LNCS proceedings.

Venue

The workshop will take place on-site, in conjunction with ICPR. Venue and registration details will be announced according to the official ICPR program.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to gennaro.vessio@uniba.it