Apocalypto: Revealing the unreadable

David Mills; Oksana Samko; Paul Rosin; Kate Thomas; Tim J Wess; Graham R Davis

doi:10.1117/12.928917

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Apocalypto: Revealing the unreadable

David Mills, Oksana Samko, Paul Rosin, Kate Thomas, Tim J Wess and Graham R Davis

Proceedings of SPIE: Developments in X-Ray Tomography VIII, Vol.8506

SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2012 (San Diego, United States, 13-Aug-2012–15-Aug-2012)

SPIE: International Society for Optical Engineering

2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1117/12.928917

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Abstract

iron gall ink

microtomography

parchment

tomography

virtual unrolling

X-ray

data projection

data segmentation

high contrast ratio

image generations

micro-tomography

noise removal

normal mean

permanent damage

post processing

surface construct

Stored in various public archives and private collections around the world, there are untold numbers of documents whose content is lost to memory and history. They cannot be read by normal means, because the parchment and paper they are written on has degraded; any attempt to handle or process the document for reading will at the very least cause it permanent damage. One of the prime catalysts of document degradation is the iron gall ink used in their writing; this provides a contrast for X-Ray imaging. The low attenuation produced by the tiny quantities of iron and other metals in the inks requires a system with a very high contrast ratio and excellent immunity from artifacts to enable ink imaging. The new generation XMT TDI scanner being developed at Queen Mary fulfills these criteria. A 3D volumetric dataset produced by XMT scanning the document is modeled and digitally re-created, producing a readable image of the text. The post-processing is performed in six stages, noise removal, data segmentation, surface construction, flattening, data projection and image generation. The scanning process takes upwards of a day, so it is important that the documents are not damaged by long exposure to the X-Ray flux. Investigations ongoing and due to be be published have shown no detectable extra damage to either old or modern scanned parchment. © 2012 SPIE.

Details

Title: Apocalypto: Revealing the unreadable
Authors: David Mills (Author) - University of London
Oksana Samko (Author) - Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Paul Rosin (Author) - Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Kate Thomas (Author) - Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Tim J Wess (Author) - Cardiff University, United Kingdom
Graham R Davis (Author) - Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
Contributors: Stuart R Stock (Editor)
Publication details: Proceedings of SPIE: Developments in X-Ray Tomography VIII, Vol.8506
Conference details: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2012 (San Diego, United States, 13-Aug-2012–15-Aug-2012)
Publisher: SPIE: International Society for Optical Engineering
Date published: 2012
DOI: 10.1117/12.928917
Organisation Unit: Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic); University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451491502621
Output Type: Conference paper

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