Virtual cleaning and unwrapping of non-invasively digitized soiled bamboo scrolls

Stromer D, Christlein V, Huang X, Zippert P, Hausotte T, Maier A (2019)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Book Volume: 9

Article Number: 2311

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-39447-0

Abstract

In ancient China, symbols and drawings captured on bamboo and wooden slips were used as main communication media. Those documents are very precious for cultural heritage and research, but due to aging processes, the discovered pieces are sometimes in a poor condition and contaminated by soil. Manual cleaning of excavated slips is a demanding and time-consuming task in which writings can be accidentally deleted. To counter this, we propose a novel approach based on conventional 3-D X-ray computed tomography to digitize such historical documents without before manual cleaning. By applying a virtual cleaning and unwrapping algorithm, the entire scroll surface is remapped into 2-D such that the hidden content becomes readable. We show that the technique also works for heavily soiled scrolls, enabling an investigation of the content by the naked eye without the need for manual labor. This digitization also allows for recovery of potentially erased writings and reconstruction of the original spatial information.

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How to cite

APA:

Stromer, D., Christlein, V., Huang, X., Zippert, P., Hausotte, T., & Maier, A. (2019). Virtual cleaning and unwrapping of non-invasively digitized soiled bamboo scrolls. Scientific Reports, 9. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39447-0

MLA:

Stromer, Daniel, et al. "Virtual cleaning and unwrapping of non-invasively digitized soiled bamboo scrolls." Scientific Reports 9 (2019).

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