1. Ancient administrative handwritten documents: X-ray analysis and imaging
- Author
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Alberto Astolfo, F. Albertin, Yeukuang Hwu, Marco Stampanoni, Eva Peccenini, Frédéric Kaplan, and Giorgio Margaritondo
- Subjects
Nuclear and High Energy Physics ,Image quality ,phase contrast ,Writing ,X-ray fluorescence ,Documentation ,ancient manuscripts ,Optics ,Imaging, Three-Dimensional ,differential phase contrast ,Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted ,Humans ,X ray analysis ,Instrumentation ,History, Ancient ,Radiation ,Information retrieval ,Manuscripts as Topic ,business.industry ,Contrast (music) ,cultural heritage ,Research Papers ,Visualization ,Refractometry ,Information Harvesting ,Italy ,ancient inks ,Ink ,refractive index imaging ,Tomography ,Differential phase contrast ,business - Abstract
The heavy-element content of ink in ancient administrative documents makes it possible to detect the characters with different synchrotron imaging techniques, based on attenuation or refraction. This is the first step in the direction of non-interactive virtual X-ray reading., Handwritten characters in administrative antique documents from three centuries have been detected using different synchrotron X-ray imaging techniques. Heavy elements in ancient inks, present even for everyday administrative manuscripts as shown by X-ray fluorescence spectra, produce attenuation contrast. In most cases the image quality is good enough for tomography reconstruction in view of future applications to virtual page-by-page ‘reading’. When attenuation is too low, differential phase contrast imaging can reveal the characters from refractive index effects. The results are potentially important for new information harvesting strategies, for example from the huge Archivio di Stato collection, objective of the Venice Time Machine project.
- Published
- 2014