Domain-informed and neural-optimized belief assignments: A framework applied to cultural heritage

Identifying pigments in Cultural Heritage artifacts is key to uncovering their origin and guiding conservation strategies. Although recent advances in non-invasive imaging have enabled the collection of rich multimodal data, existing methods often fall short in dealing with uncertain, ambiguous, or noisy information. This paper introduces a versatile fusion framework grounded in Belief Function Theory, combining domain-informed evidence modeling with neural optimization. Specifically, we propose a general strategy for assigning mass functions by leveraging expert knowledge encoded in parametric Evidence Mapping Functions, which are further refined through task-specific training using constrained neural networks. When applied to pigment classification, our method demonstrates robustness against source variability and class ambiguity. Experiments conducted on both synthetic and mock-up datasets validate its effectiveness and suggest promising potential for broader applications.