A new camera can distinguish layers of ink hidden by several layers of ink and paper, and could also be used to analyze paintings:
MIT researchers and their colleagues are designing an imaging system that can read closed books. In the latest issue of Nature Communications, the researchers describe a prototype of the system, which they tested on a stack of papers, each with one letter printed on it. The system was able to correctly identify the letters on the top nine sheets. "The Metropolitan Museum in New York showed a lot of interest in this, because they want to, for example, look into some antique books that they don't even want to touch," says Barmak Heshmat, a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab and corresponding author on the new paper. He adds that the system could be used to analyze any materials organized in thin layers, such as coatings on machine parts or pharmaceuticals.
Also at TechCrunch.
Terahertz time-gated spectral imaging for content extraction through layered structures (open, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12665) (DX)
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In the 1970s, some charred fragments of ancient scrolls were discovered inside the ark of a synagogue at En-Gedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The archaeologists could not unroll them without destroying them, and it was doubtful any text would be legible. So they preserved the fragments in hope that one day better technology might come along.
That day is finally here, as computer scientists at the University of Kentucky have developed a technique to read them. Recently, we've seen news about being able to read closed books, but in the past couple years technology has revolutionized the field of classical studies by allowing "virtual unrolling" of ancient scrolls. The combination of a micro-CT scan and specialized software was developed as part of a project to allow scholars to read the scrolls from Herculaneum, an ancient town near Pompeii which was also destroyed in the volcanic eruption. The so-called "Villa of the Papyri" contains the only intact ancient library ever discovered and has so far yielded nearly 2000 ancient scrolls, mostly obscure and lost works associated with Epicurean philosophical ideas. (Excavation at Herculaneum is not currently active, but many scholars speculate there could be additional chambers in the villa, possibly with thousands of other lost ancient works.)
The most recent accomplishment with this technique is the reading of a biblical fragment from the En-Gedi synagogue. As Yosef Porath, a researcher involved in the original archaeological dig nearly a half-century ago, was preparing a final report on the charred scroll fragments, he asked Pnina Shor (the head of the Dead Sea Scrolls project at the Israel Antiquities Authority) to try making some high-resolution scans. Dr. Shor was skeptical, given the poor condition of the fragments (which looked like chunks of charcoal), but she included one fragment on a whim along with other objects she was submitting for cross-sectional scanning. She forwarded the results to W. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky who has been working on the "virtual unrolling" software.
The results were striking. Not only did they obtain a clear and legible text, but it was also found to be the earliest extant fragment of the Hebrew Bible with an identical text to the medieval Masoretic Text used as the standard Hebrew edition today. The Masoretic text serves as the basis for most modern translations, and this recent find demonstrates a possible continuous stable text going back as much as 1700-2000 years. According to the researchers, it is also the first ancient biblical fragment recovered from the ark of a synagogue (as opposed to the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were preserved in desert caves.)
Links to published studies:
Article on Technical Methodology and Findings
Article on Recovered Hebrew Text and Historical Significance
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @03:07AM
This could replace the rapiscan machine the TSA use. They could see under the skin, the rule 34 possibility are endless...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @03:10AM
http://news.mit.edu/2016/speedy-terahertz-based-system-could-detect-explosives-0520 [mit.edu] I was right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @03:51AM
Can the machine detect how much pent up sperm is in my testicles and determine whether I jacked off today? [Answer: No, stroking off now.]
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:05AM
The frequency is about right [wikipedia.org]: they may actually be using the camera from a Millimeter wave scanner [wikipedia.org].
(I looked it up because I was too tired to do the math).
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @03:52AM
Reading the charred scrolls from Herculaneum is a similar problem, though more difficult because of their geometry. Maybe this terahertz technique would be applicable there. I'm guessing that terahertz waves are easier to generate than coherent X-rays.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/science/more-progress-made-toward-learning-contents-of-herculaneum-scrolls.html [nytimes.com]
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms6895 [nature.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Fnord666 on Tuesday September 13 2016, @04:33AM
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Eristone on Tuesday September 13 2016, @04:39AM
or the down cards when playing blackjack or any other casino game....
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Tuesday September 13 2016, @09:53AM
no. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday September 13 2016, @04:50AM
Can it be implanted in my eyeball?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday September 13 2016, @07:53AM
Or "secure" envelopes with banking information?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @08:40AM
This was what came first to my mind, too. I've been using dead-tree mail for messages I'd prefer to communicate in person, but cannot due to physical distance.
I may start sending my letters within a crimp-sealed foil packet now.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Tuesday September 13 2016, @09:54AM
yes! [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Tuesday September 13 2016, @09:53AM
no. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Tuesday September 13 2016, @09:52AM
The system exploits the fact that trapped between the pages of a book are tiny air pockets only about 20 micrometers deep. The difference in refractive index — the degree to which they bend light — between the air and the paper means that the boundary between the two will reflect terahertz radiation back to a detector.
so what this is actually measuring is not the ink but the air between the pages. this won't let you see what on the other side of things unless it's pressed up against something else that is static and very very close.
(Score: 2) by bd on Tuesday September 13 2016, @10:14AM
No, you are measuring the difference of thickness of the pages. The air just needs to be there so that you get individual reflections from the pages. Otherwise, what you would measure would be the (not very useful) overall thickness of the book. It could also work if pages are fixed together with glue that has high refractive index.
A more fundamental limitation is the THz wavelength (in the mm range), which limits the axial resolution of the image. This technology will be fundamentally unusable to produce sharp images of smaller font sizes.
Another fundamental limitation is absorption. It may work for paper, but that does not necessarily mean it will work for parchment or the charred papyrus from Herculaneum. (Of course, with the papyrus, there may not be sufficient gaps). Metal based ink will propably work like a mirror and occlude text beneath it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 13 2016, @01:07PM
Hmm, perhaps now I will be able to understand my wife...
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by requerdanos on Tuesday September 13 2016, @03:52PM
What TFS says:
Let's think about that given other info in tfs.
Now, let's apply that knowledge to a corrected title:
Prototype Terahertz Imaging System Might Precede A System Someday Able To "Read" Closed Books But It For Sure Can't Do It Right Now At One Letter Per Page Through Just Nine Pages
There. Fixed. I wish them well. Scanning books sure would be a lot easier (easier to do, and easier on the books) if you didn't have to open them to do it!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday September 13 2016, @05:08PM
Just make people write/draw in lead ink and paint, and use a 3D X-ray machine. That already worked 15 years ago.
Now, let me go get my time machine to teach lead processing techniques to the ancients. What could possibly go wrong?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 13 2016, @10:26PM
ლ) Dude's gone and poisoned the Romans.