Appendix B — Technical Stack

Abstract

This appendix offers an in-depth look at the technical architecture powering the Artalytics platform. It explains each component of the ecosystem, including Certificates.Art, Artalytics.App, Secure Asset Storage, PixelSense API, and the Artwork Database. The appendix discusses the purposes, scale requirements, development actions required, and future roadmaps for each. Investors interested in the technological underpinnings will find valuable insights into the platform’s scalability, security, and readiness for market demands.

The Artalytics Ecosystem

The following is a detailed overview of our tech stack, outlining the components, their purposes, scale requirements, and future development plans, while providing clarity on how each piece fits into the overall architecture.

Certificates.Art

Secure, scalable server to host generated certificate documents and other artwork assets.

Purpose

• Asset Protection: Safeguards highly valuable assets while serving a subset as publicly available view and download documents.
• Public-Facing Application: Runs a production R Shiny application that is publicly accessible and scalable from the alpha stage pilot program launch date.
• Cost-Efficient Scaling: Handles operations without complex computations or computationally expensive user actions, allowing for economical scalability.

Scale Requirements for Pilot

• R Shiny Users: Supports up to 1,000 simultaneous users (no authentication required).
• File Downloads: Handles up to 10,000 simultaneous file download requests.
• API Access: Includes a lightweight API for programmatic access to digital certificate documents.

Future Roadmap

The current Shiny app is not the ideal long-term solution, as it mainly serves for content viewing rather than data interaction. Planning to transition to a pure React framework will enhance performance and scalability.

Artalytics.App

The primary platform server that hosts the main Shiny application.

Purpose

• User Access: Provides authenticated users the ability to upload and manage artworks.
• Public Interaction: Offers unauthenticated users access to public-facing interactive galleries for verified digital artworks.
• Computations: Runs a Shiny application that performs moderate computations, including computationally expensive PixelSense actions on uploaded artworks.

Scale Requirements for Pilot

• Authenticated Sessions: Supports up to 100 active authenticated sessions (alpha pilot requirement).
• Unauthenticated Sessions: Handles up to 10,000 active unauthenticated sessions (no PixelSense interaction).

Present State

This server hosts the following components required by the platform application:

• Secure Asset Storage
• PixelSense REST API
• Application Database

Development Actions Required

Currently, the platform application is not mobile optimized. While artists can be required to use desktop for authenticated features like artwork uploads, mobile optimization is vital for viewer experiences of digital artworks, as mobile users are likely to constitute the majority of platform visitors.

Secure Asset Storage

Secure file storage and rapid access of artwork assets uploaded by artists and those generated by the platform.

Purpose

Stores assets for both long-term secure and encrypted storage, as well as assets readily available and required by an application active user session. These include:

• Uploaded Artworks: Artwork canvases and other files uploaded by authenticated users.
• Interactive Gallery Assets:
  • Timelapse frames extracted from canvas-recorded videos.
  • Artwork images in various sizes and formats.
  • Other assets not suitable for storage in tabular form in the database.

Development Action Required

• Storage Efficiency: The average uploaded bundle is approximately 500 MB, while generated digital assets average around 300 MB.
• Security Enhancements: Currently, there are no asset protections beyond access controls and server firewalls.
• Compression and Encryption: Implementing file compression and enhanced encryption, especially for cold storage, is necessary for security and efficiency.

Future Roadmap

Traditional file storage will not be adequate for platform requirements beyond the initial stages. Transitioning to a production-grade asset store, such as a Content Delivery Network (CDN) or other scalable solutions, will be essential as we progress to subsequent investment rounds.

PixelSense API

The primary workhorse of the platform’s most valuable and proprietary services.

Purpose

• Backend Processing: Accessible only on the backend by the application, this API responds to user uploads.
• Computational Tasks: Performs a range of heavy and computationally intensive tasks including complex image analysis, machine learning models, insight generation, and canvas asset generation.
• Data Population: Populates both file storage and database storage with all data related to the artist, the uploaded artwork, and application data used by active Shiny sessions.
• Integration: Interacts with Certificates.Art, the app host, and the application database.

Present State

• Processing Time: For every application session where an artist uploads work, this service starts a job that computes for approximately 5 minutes.
• Hosting: Currently, this API is hosted on the same server as the platform application (Artalytics.App).

Development Action Required

• Separation of Concerns: Separating the PixelSense API from the application host is vital for modularity and maintainability.
• Performance Optimization: Improving the efficiency of PixelSense processes is crucial, as the current load and processing times are not scalable.

Scale Requirements

• Concurrent Processing: Needs to support 100 active uploads, authentications, and computationally heavy analyses.

Future Roadmap

Separating PixelSense from the Artalytics.App application allows us the flexibility to offer external services to third-party systems, such as institutions and large-scale galleries. Insights and analysis services (without canvas authentication) present a valuable additional revenue stream for the company.

Potential Services Include:

• Image Analysis: Color-based metrics and other insights derived from artwork images.
• Authentication Verification: Determining if an image is an authentic digital artwork verified by Artalytics.
• AI Detection: Predicting whether an artwork image is human-created or AI-generated.
• Style and Technique Analysis: Analyzing the styles and techniques employed by artists based on completed artworks.

Artwork Database

A PostgreSQL database that secures and protects all artwork, artist, and application data.

Purpose

• Data Access: Accessed by active user sessions of the Artalytics platform Shiny app as well as sessions on Certificates.Art.
• Internal Security: Database is only internally accessible by the application (Artalytics.App).
• Operations Support: Supports rapid requests for data, fast image hash searching, database write operations by PixelSense, and database read operations by unauthenticated Shiny user sessions.
• High Utilization: Heavily utilized by every Shiny session on Artalytics.App and Certificates.Art.

Future Roadmap

Separating the PostgreSQL database from the Artalytics.App host into a dedicated managed cloud environment is planned for the future. This transition aims to enhance performance and scalability without loss of latency.

Platform & Upload Flow

flowchart LR

%% Define subgraphs for platform users and components
subgraph Users
  U[Artists]
  C[Anyone]
end

subgraph Frontend
  A[Artalytics.App]
  CA[Certificates.Art]
end

subgraph Backend
  DB[(Artwork Source of Truth)]  
  PS{{PixelSense API}}           
  AS[(Secure Asset Vault)]       
  CRT[Certificate Registry]
end

%% Define the flow
U --> |Upload Canvas| A --> |Authentication & Analysis| PS
PS --> |Land| DB
PS --> |Land| AS
PS --> |Land| CRT

C -. Interactive Galleries .- A
C -. Browse Certificates .- CA
CA -. Retrieve .- CRT

%% Style definitions for nodes
style U fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px
style C fill:#f9f9f9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px

style A fill:#f0f8ff,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px
style CA fill:#f0f8ff,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px

style PS fill:#e6fff5,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px

style DB fill:#fff5e6,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px
style AS fill:#e6f9ff,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px
style CRT fill:#ffe6f9,stroke:#333,stroke-width:1px

%% Optional: Define styles for subgraphs if needed
style Users fill:#ffffff,stroke:#999
style Frontend fill:#f0f0f0,stroke:#999
style Backend fill:#f8f8f8,stroke:#999

Figure 1: Platform Ecosystem and Artwork Upload Flow Diagram

Diagram Key Points

Diagram Takeaways

The platform provides a seamless flow from canvas upload to public authentication:

• Artists authenticate and analyze their work through Artalytics.App and PixelSense API.
• Authenticated artworks are securely stored and certificates are issued.

Users can:

• Engage with interactive galleries showcasing authenticated artworks.
• Verify artwork authenticity by browsing certificates.

Backend Tech ensures:

• Secure storage of assets and data.
• Integrity of the authentication process.
• Accessibility of certificates and interactive experiences.

Diagram Explanation

Components

Users:

• Artists: Upload their digital canvases to the platform.
• Anyone: Access interactive galleries and browse certificates.

Frontend:

• Artalytics.App: The main platform application for artists, collectors, and viewers.
  • Artists upload canvases here.
  • Users access interactive galleries.
• Certificates.Art: The public certificate authority and repository of authenticated artworks.
  • Users can browse certificates of authenticated artworks.

Backend:

• PixelSense API: Proprietary backend technology that performs deep authentication and analysis of uploaded canvases.
• Artwork Source of Truth Database: The central database storing verified information about artists, artworks, and collections.
• Secure Asset Vault: Secure storage for all digital assets not stored in the database.
• Certificate Registry: Stores the certificates issued after artwork authentication.

Summary of Diagram Flow

1. Canvas Upload: Artists upload their canvases through Artalytics.App.
2. Authentication & Analysis: The uploaded canvas is sent to the PixelSense API for deep authentication and analysis.
3. Data Storage: Results and assets are stored in:
   • Artwork Source of Truth Database
   • Secure Asset Vault
   • Certificate Registry
4. Interactive Galleries Access: Anyone can access interactive galleries via Artalytics.App.
5. Certificate Browsing: Anyone can browse certificates on Certificates.Art.
   • Certificates.Art retrieves certificate data from the Certificate Registry.