Computer Reveals Stone Tablet "Handwriting" 42
ewenc writes "A computer technique can tell the difference between ancient Greek inscriptions created by different artisans, a feat that ordinarily consumes years of human scholarship, reports New Scientist. A team of Greek computer scientists created the program after a scholar challenged them to attribute 24 inscriptions to their rightful cutter. The researchers scanned the tablets and constructed an average shape for several Greek letters in every tablet. After comparing the average letters between different tablets, they correctly attributed the inscriptions to six stone-cutters."
Are they doing this in 3-D ? (Score:3, Interesting)
3-D would be an obvious add-on here - the depth of the cut stone incision should reveal a lot
about the force being used, and I would expect that to be a distinguishing characteristic.
Re:Are they doing this in 3-D ? (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA : "Panagopoulos says his team is looking to use 3D images in the future."
So, not yet.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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Bringing it slightly back On Topic, this has nothing to do with translation of already readable stone inscriptions.
Its about determining which hammer and chisel jockey was involved in translating the "written on paper" to the "carved in stone".
This is akin to determining if Margret typed your manuscript or if it was Walter.
Nothing at all about recovering last works or determining if you have risen to the status of a classic author.
So, don't expect any rush of visitors to your department any time soon.
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Presumably it could also discern the difference between Ancient Margaret of Crete and Walter's Tablets 'R Us Reproductions on 4th and Broadway.
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I doubt it, if it's a reproduction then it's likely to copy the style of the original author, possibly with mechanical precision (which term I use to include using casting or laser cutting). The original tablets would be unlikely to have been created in an attempt to deceive. You can tell peoples handwriting apart, but not if one is forging the other well.
I could be wrong.
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Bringing it slightly back On Topic, this has nothing to do with translation of already readable stone inscriptions.
Rather absurd to claim the original post in this thread was off topic. The article is about improving traffic analysis for ancient texts. An expert in ancient texts can't say, "Yay!", as a result?
Its about determining which hammer and chisel jockey was involved in translating the "written on paper" to the "carved in stone". This is akin to determining if Margret typed your manuscript or i
Data Storage Medium Longevity (Score:4, Insightful)
It sounds like this medium is considerably longer lived than paper tape, 9-track reels, CDs, DVDs, or anything else I can think of storing important data on. Now all I need is a high density tablet drive.
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Re:Data Storage Medium Longevity (Score:4, Funny)
the drive? cheap
the tablets = very pricy
they always get you with the media
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Back then, they hadn't yet discovered that you could chisel a notch on the edge of the tablet and then use the other side.
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Some, though hardly all, classical Greek texts survived(often by virtue of being copied a lot, rather than the original surviving) and the SAN behind me will probably be unreadable in 5 years, 10 at the outside; but the SAN could almost definitely hold more data than were written down during the entire course of ancient Greek civilization(and it isn't even a big SAN we are talking about).
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Ah haa (Score:2)
Now we can figure out which one of them wrote that nasty message on the bathroom stall door! Finally, justice will be done!
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Couldn't be. Algore invented greek. And the use of rocks in this manner would cause global warmning.
A leap forward for Stonecutters everywhere (Score:1)
Time to break out the Stone of Triumph!
Now.... (Score:2)
If we can just get them to all register a stone carving sample,
we can expand the database and credit those responsible.
"correctly attributed"? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Seems to me that it is impossible to verify that the machine analysis is correct, only that it matches the analysis done by a trained human. Proving correct attribution would require either a signature on each piece or the testimony of the original artisans.
Well see you just didn't read the whole article. Step two involves bringing to life and asking an army of zombie stonecutters.
Amazing! (Score:1)
Ahem.. (Score:4, Funny)
Q: Why does it take years for people to decode those scripts?
A: Because it is all greek to us.
Thank you, thank you. No autographs please.
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Q: Why does it take years for people to decode those scripts? A: Because it is all greek to us.
And why did it take those Greek computer scientists a lot less?
That's right: because it was all Greek to them!
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ÎὠμÎÎ á¼(TM)ÎÎÎνÎÎή á¼ÏfÏÎν...
I couldn't have put it better myself!
this just in (Score:5, Funny)
ALL YOUR VASE ARE BELONG TO US
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Well, V's were a Roman thing, and this was Greek. I was going to go with sigmas for the E's but I couldn't figure out how to convince the comment system to buy it. I figured P for R and Y for U would be too weird, and the Greek vase thing was silly enough.
Decoded. (Score:3, Funny)
Oh Come On (Score:2)
You just gotta say the words, dood. Piece of cake.
Klaatu, verada,
No, nickel!
Nectar!!
damn
No blind test ? (Score:1)
Would a 35+ year old technique have done the job? (Score:1)
35+ Years ago, Professor Nabil Farhat [upenn.edu]presented what might be called "Handwriting Attribution by 3 Year Olds." He showed an audience 3 different handwritten cursive script documents, let's call them A, B, and C. The texts of the three documents had nothing to do with each other. The authorship of documents A and C was uncontested. The authorship of B was highly contested. He then showed the
Handwriting? (Score:1)
Wouldnt that be chisel writing?
In other news, they just decoded thousand years old hieroglyphics... it said, "Jefferson, if you're reading this, you're spending way too long decoding hieroglyphics in way that was not at all intended ;)"
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Wouldnt that be chisel writing?
Most people doing handwriting use a pen for the actual writing (writing in snow(!) or dust being exceptions). Some use a stylus, I don't see how writing with a chisel in your hand should need a different wording. It's handwriting if you use your hands to hold a tool that is used to mark glyphs on a medium.