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!!!