Our tools

Here you can find the SILKNOW tools, these will be uploaded in line with the project’s advancement.

ADASilk

ADASilk (Advanced Data Analysis for Silk heritage), which integrates an exploratory search engine and a spatio-temporal map, is built on top of the SILKNOW’s knowledge graph that contains nearly 40,000 fabric entries with images and other relevant information describing them (e.g., production place, production timespan, material, technique, etc.).

This information is enriched by text analytics, that automatically extracts data from the textual description of silk fabrics.

https://ada.silknow.org/en

Virtual Loom

This groundbreaking Loom acts as a digital memory of silk heritage as it preserves historical weaving techniques which most of them are only known by artisans who have kept alive this ancestral know-how. It conserves and documents several weaving techniques thanks to its 3D visualization, which allows understanding the interlacement between wefts and warps by applying the necessary restrictions for each technique. Therefore, the VL shows those techniques as they are in real life. The SILKNOW’s Virtual Loom also enables traditional industries to reduce costs by letting them select colours and techniques with just a click, and it encourages designers to create fabrics from historical silk models. Besides, this tool allows the creation of new designs applied to sustainable and recycled materials in 3D printing.

Educational Materials

La Ruta de la Seda (The Silk Road) educational material has been specially designed for learning Spanish through different aspects related to silk in Europe. The aim of its publication in the SILKNOW portal is to disseminate our cultural heritage and to highlight the cultural exchange that the production and trade of silk involved and still involves.

STMaps

We are happy to announce that the version for testing the spatio-temporal Map with the general public is ready. This last release is already available to download and has been integrated in ADASilk.

  • Version 1.0 (UI changed; Stacked Maps fixed; Minor bug fixes)

Multilingual Thesaurus

In order to understand the world of silk, its ancestral techniques, its decorative motifs and the historical and commercial importance it has had, and has indeed, in Europe, this thesaurus which we have built, is a fundamental tool to discover the wealth derived from this precious fabric.

With this tool we enable either those interested in fabrics or researchers who need to contrast those terms that they found in the archives and ítems they study, in many cases, localisms, in order to understand the international significance of silk. Furthermore it constitutes a relevant resource to museums and collections when working with catalogs and fabric goods, with the aim that those inventories could be standardized.