Tracking the lightning quick development of modern cities is easy withGoogle Street View , but a big newfangled project target to provide context for the preceding 1,000 years of urban evolution in Venice , Italy . TheVenice Time Machinewill digitalize and catalogue a staggering amount of historical documents — a combined 50 miles worth of shelves!—then turn the datum into an internet archive and adaptable 3D model .
Timing - wise , it certainly lines up with the zeitgeisty boot of ethnic institutions — from the Met to the New York Public Library — putting theircollections onlineand free for the public to range . In this character , pluck together all the documents into a cohesive whole will be a pretty epic challenge , and one that ’s been hundred in the making .
The archives were located in unlike spots around the city until 1815 , when they were run to the Frari ’s convent in the middle of townspeople . Now , the stack and gobs ( and stacks and stacks ) moderate a millenary ’s worth of all kinds of hand - written texts : mathematical function , correspondences , taxation statements , architectural plans , travel guides , and peace treaties , even giving birth and destruction registries and will .
Themulti - step process , helm by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , the University Ca ’ Foscari , and the Lombard Odier Foundation , will involve substantial input from both computers and the great unwashed , using technology that is presently being tested and perfected . First , everything will be scanned by a semi - automatic robotic scanning whole into high resolution persona , or — and this voice incredible — a technique using “ decade - ray synchrotron radiation produced by a particle accelerator ” will permit scanning without even turning a Sir Frederick Handley Page .
Those images will be transcribed with the help a text processor powered by the sort of algorithms used for protein structure depth psychology ; these will notice strings of word that could be sentences .
in the end , a monolithic taxonomy of key idiomatic expression , people , and blank space will build out this interconnect , entirely searchable database . finally , the squad believe they ’ll be able to create a morphing 3D model of Venice through the years , base on the collected and synthesized information .
It will be captivating to watch this process unfold , and its succeeder could have major implications for putting more rarified , mark - only artifacts into the global mix . [ Gizmag ]
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