Picturing the Past: HP Labs Technology Helping Scholars Decipher Ancient Texts
<<<...To speed the data-collection process, Malzbender teamed with fellow researchers Gelb, Eric Montgomery and Bill Ambrisco to build an automated dome. This one, a plastic dome with 50 flashbulbs mounted on its inside surface, takes 50 photos at the touch of a button. Malzbender next wondered if there were other ways to accentuate surface details. He wound up developing an entirely new class of constrast-enhancement mechanisms that can bring out even surface details. By changing the optical properties of the imaged object, he can synthesize specular highlights - that is, he can make a surface that isn't reflective, such as a clay tablet, appear to be as glossy as obsidian. Another technique, called diffuse gain, changes how the surface responds to light. A third method, model extrapolation, makes the lighting appear more oblique than is physically possible. Malzbender and other researchers are now working on a freestanding portable unit that scholars could easily transport to remote sites to capture images of large objects such as walls or statues. The image-based relighting technology has the potential to reshape other fields as well, including forensics and diagnostic medicine, where materials are degraded or difficult to view. "It's been really exciting," says Malzbender. "A lot of things have come out of this we didn't expect."