EDUCE: Enhanced Digital Unwrapping for Conservation and Exploration

Brent Seales
Brent Seales
Gill Professor of Computer Science and DirectorCenter for Visualization and Virtual EnvironmentsUniversity of KentuckyWebsiteRead Bio

Often, any attempt to read fragile texts, such as papyrus rolls, fundamentally and irreversibly alters the structure of the object in which they are contained. The EDUCE project is developing a non-destructive volumetric scanning framework to enable access to such objects without the need to physically open them. This work is based on earlier achievements in digital restoration that have recently been applied to the Venetus A in order to digitally flatten its pages. In this presentation I will discuss the overarching theme of digital restoration and will present current progress on the EDUCE project and results from work on the Venetus A.

Dr. Seales' research focuses on digital imaging in two very different directions: medical imaging and cultural heritage. His EDUCE project (Enhanced Digital Unwrapping for Conservation and Exploration) seeks to create readable images of texts such as papyrus scrolls, without opening them, using minimally invasive scanning and virtual unwrapping. Dr. Seales is developing and evaluating new techniques for digital acquisition, restoration, and visualization using real-world library collections with particular focus on preservation and dissemination. He is also the director of the STITCH project (Surgical Technology Integration with Tools for Cognitive Human Factors), which envisions a networked operating room of the future, where computers and surgical instruments are connected. The result: an enriched and more efficient environment for surgeons.

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Contact: MITH (mith.umd.edu, mith@umd.edu, 301.405.8927).