New chapter in book scan technology
Leave it to the great minds at MIT and Georgia Tech to figure out a way to read the pages of a book without actually opening it.
A team of researchers from the two institutions pulled it off with a system they developed that looks like a cross between a camera and a microscope.
They said it could someday be used by museums to scan the contents of old books too fragile to handle or to examine paintings to confirm their authenticity or understand the artist’s creative process.
Writing in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications, the scientists explained how they used terahertz waves - a type of radiation situated on the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light – to read a stack of papers with a single letter handwritten on each page.
The device, called a terahertz spectrometer, managed to clearly read only nine pages, though it could see writing on up to 20.
While the device is still a long way from reading an entire book, the team is already talking with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York about using it to inspect some of its artworks and antique volumes. The museum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It could also be used in industry – for example, to see whether there are cracks or other defects beneath the paint on an aircraft part.
For now, broader uses would be limited by the cost of the device, which runs about US$100,000 ($137,950).
In the study, the stack of paper had no cover, but researchers are confident the system could see through one. The system works much better than X-rays, which are currently used to scan documents and paintings but entail harmful levels of radiation. AP