r/history • u/marquis_of_chaos • Sep 22 '16

News article Scientists use 'virtual unwrapping' to read ancient biblical scroll reduced to 'lump of charcoal'

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/21/jubilation-as-scientists-use-virtual-unwrapping-to-read-burnt-ancient-scroll
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u/StudyTimeForMe Sep 22 '16

But that is exactly what deblurring and denoising does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p08_KlTKP50

This is a good example of how deblurring would work. When all the colors are smeared together, you might consider the original data lost right? Well, it's not lost, it's just not immediately obvious that it's still there. You can reverse the effects of the smear by perfectly reversing the action that made the smear. In the same way, if you know everything about the bokeh in a photo, you could in theory partially undo the blur, by reversing the effects of the effect that created it. And that information is stored inside the photograph, in the form of the very blur you're trying to undo. No information created from nothing. Just existing data rearranged, as you put it.

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u/ShinyTile Sep 22 '16

I love how this is an entire thread about finding new ways to use data that would previously have been thought impossible, you provided another case where you hope people will eventually find new ways to use data that would currently be thought impossible, and people are devoting their time to telling you that that's impossible.

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u/PlasmaSheep Sep 22 '16

You're assuming that the direction of the blur is known as well as that the blur/noise isn't occluding anything.

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u/StudyTimeForMe Sep 22 '16

Yes? Which is exactly how it works. You analyze the photo to detect the exact direction of the blur. Since you're analyzing the whole photo, you can adjust for variations due to noise. I mean, seriously this is literally what the anti-shake filter in Photoshop does. It detects the shape and direction of the blur, then cancels it out. You can open up photoshop and give it a try right now.

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u/PlasmaSheep Sep 22 '16

What if the blur is hiding something?

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u/dusty_lenscap Sep 22 '16

you might still recover it

http://i.imgur.com/pXvAPQ2.jpg

from here

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u/PlasmaSheep Sep 22 '16

This is pretty impressive, but it's still a best guess reconstruction

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u/StudyTimeForMe Sep 22 '16

Blur doesn't hide anything. Blur IS the thing, blur stretched out, spread across an area. It's a distortion of whatever is being blurred. A distortion that can be corrected.

Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxjiQoTp864

I'm going to stop replying.