3-D Scans Reveal Lost Gravestone Text

Search Options	close
Search the following clips: All Clips

news science politics food economy art
technology health internet religion psychology

Sign Up Install Learn More Login


	3-D Scans Reveal Lost Gravestone Text

nohobot

10-3-2007 8:10 AM

646 views

tags:

bbc, research, science, technology, tombstones, graves, patterns, computers, archaeology

Add a Comment

Login to Comment. Not a member yet? Sign up

Today's Top Clips

visit the Top Clips page

View the Top Clips from October 3, 2007

Embed This Clip In Your Site...

<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/8097d8a0-04e4-4717-bad1-ce67a7d89571/6F5C1B7A-78ED-4B1C-9C79-71AC5EBC4DEA/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm" style="font-size: 11px;">news.bbc.co.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm"><FONT size="2">	
		<TABLE width="203" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" align="right"><TBODY><TR><TD><DIV>
				<IMG width="203" vspace="0" hspace="0" height="152" border="0" alt="Tombstone before and after" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44152000/jpg/_44152098_tombstone203.jpg" />
				<DIV class="cap">On the left is the original tombstone and on the right is the recovered text</DIV>
			</DIV>
			</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><B>Illegible words on church headstones could be read once more thanks to a scan technology developed in the US. </B>
</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm"><FONT size="2">Scientists at Carnegie Mellon university are making high resolution 3D scans of tombstones to reveal the carved patterns in the stone.
</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm"><FONT size="2">A computer matches the patterns to a database of signature carvings which reveals the words.
</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm"><FONT size="2">The technique could one day also be used by doctors to examine a patient's tongue for signs of illness.
</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm"><FONT size="2">At the moment, archaeologists are forced to do hand-tracing work with plastic sheets and to examine objects first hand in order to decipher obscured writings. 
</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm"><FONT size="2">The team is also developing "template matching methods" to detect particular patterns such as carved shapes.
</FONT></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7024672.stm"><FONT size="2">For example, natural holes on the rock normally have rounded edges but man-made carvings in rock usually have rather sharp edges around the holes. This knowledge can be encoded thanks to the new technique.
</FONT></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/6F5C1B7A-78ED-4B1C-9C79-71AC5EBC4DEA/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>