Virtually Unwrapping Ancient Scrolls

Last night, I watched an amazing video of up-and-coming technology that is allowing us to become more and more able to read the contents of ancient scrolls and other texts without even opening and/or damaging them. In a nutshell, the concept is to get the scroll, take x-ray footage of it, input that x-ray data into a computer program and then, let the program separate out the layers so that it performs a virtual unrolling of the scroll (this is being used for other types of documents too, such as the ancient codices). The technique, dubbed the EDUCE Project, is incredibly fascinating and got me really excited about the potential of this project, led by University of Kentucky professor W. Brent Seales. To really wrap your mind around the process, give the following video a watch and I promise, you won't walk away without your interest piqued!!!