I think you are possibly correct here. I see almost zero commercial application for this - at least when it comes to truly vintage bicycles. Either the owner, or someone knowledgeable in a bike shop will know what can work. There are a number of rather expert hobbyists in that part of the country who could do about as much to educate the person undertaking this colossal headache. I'd direct him to John Barron, Scott Davis or Peter Naiman for some conversation.

Note, I work in IT, and I can't recall an instance where the jargon has been laid on so heavily, and the clear intent of the undertaking has been more obfuscated than the descriptions provided at the start of this thread. I understand there's some bicycle modeling database being attempted. Are we going to see a computer game where Coppi rides a 2003 Trek Madone fitted with Simplex retrofriction and races Lance on a 1973 PX-10 with C-record and Eddy Merckx on 1952 Bianchi with SRAM red components?