Israel announces amazing break through in deciphering old documents
Bookworm on Sep 02 2009 at 10:03 pm | Filed under: Israel
Would it be too tacky for me too say that I anxiously await comparable technological breakthroughs from the 250,000,000 Muslims surrounding tiny Israel?
Researchers in Israel say they have developed a computer program that can decipher previously unreadable ancient texts and possibly lead the way to a Google-like search engine for historical documents.
The program uses a pattern recognition algorithm similar to those law enforcement agencies have adopted to identify and compare fingerprints.
But in this case, the program identifies letters, words and even handwriting styles, saving historians and liturgists hours of sitting and studying each manuscript.
By recognizing such patterns, the computer can recreate with high accuracy portions of texts that faded over time or even those written over by later scribes, said Itay Bar-Yosef, one of the researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
“The more texts the program analyses, the smarter and more accurate it gets,” Bar-Yosef said.
The computer works with digital copies of the texts, assigning number values to each pixel of writing depending on how dark it is. It separates the writing from the background and then identifies individual lines, letters and words.
It also analyses the handwriting and writing style, so it can “fill in the blanks” of smeared or faded characters that are otherwise indiscernible, Bar-Yosef said.
Read more here.
Israel — small but mighty.
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6 Responses to “Israel announces amazing break through in deciphering old documents”
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Amazing!
Utilizing the mind instead of mindless misery.
After a thorough internet search…was an unintended German/Arab joint venture.
BW, how gauche of you to point that out! (It takes a second rate mind to ignore the obvious.)
Besides, aren’t we all indebted to the Arabs for, like, inventing mathematics in the dark ages and creating the world’s first tolerant society in Andalusia or someplace?
Next thing I know you’ll be recommending that I read George Gilder’s new book, in which he argues that “freedom, democracy, capitalism, America, and the Jewish state are all tied together in a single knot”, according to that fascist running dog lackey National Review.
People often defend Israel by pointing out its scientific advances and economic dynamism. But to modern “progressives,” these are not reasons to admire Israel–they are reasons to despise it.
“Progressivism” has a strong reactionary, anti-Enlightenment flavor. It yearns for the primitive.
GPC, Islam should be credited for conquering the Indian people and obtaining the numeral 0 from them and calling it Arabic, since part of the Indian continent was under Islam’s political control.
This is also part of the Islamic rich cultural heritage, the Hagia Sophia, which they also obtained for their own and called it a mosque.
Y – yes, you are right. I made a feeble attempt at sarcasm. My implicit point was that in cultural and scientific terms, the Arabs have accomplished precious little in the last half millenium, and even that little has been overstated in the interest of political correctness. (Obama’s speech in Egypt is a prime example.)
I fully agree with BW’s point: Israel is a remarkable country. Its achievements dwarf those of its much larger neighbors, which must drive the Arabs crazy.
Not a new phenomenon: I was listening to Ben Gurion’s 1948 speech the other day.
I was aware of your intent. I wanted to emphasize, however, that we should respect any culture that can start in one part of the world, Arabia, and reach so far as to call an Indian invention their own.
On the order of civilization accomplishments, this is rather grand, don’t you think.
If think if we were to ever adopt the Left’s preference for blood in return for oil, there are many Islamic achievements and examples we could become indebted to, for offering us a jump start on the business, so to speak.