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July 28, 2008
IRENE
The University of California at Berkeley created a piece of equipment that reconstructs sound waves through imaging processes with little or no contact to the material. Damaged, broken or warped can then be recovered through a manner that will not further any destruction.
Initials tests compared the digital reconstruction with the actual playback and the digital version as recorded through the player. Regular playback with a stylus samples a portion of the groove wall in contact, and researchers found better information stored in the other parts of the groove which can enhance the overall sound capture.
(a microphotograph of record grooves)
The researchers looked at the records more as a digital maps of the surface of the media. Image analysis methods to recover the audio data and reduce noise were applied to the scans to create the audio files. More about IRENE
Reconstructed sound sample, taken from a 78 shellac disc- Goodnight Irene
One of the interesting aspects of this application is the possibility to obtain data from damaged objects and transfer into a medium that could also entail a higher level of access and use of the material. Older recordings on wax cylinders or other obsolete formats can be read on a scanner instead of finding an appropriate reader. Some of these older recording may also be too delicate to be read with a stylus, so IRENE provides a method to read the content with essentially no contact to the original surface. Scratches, dirt or other signs of wear can be taken out after the scan is completed, since the affected areas can be recognized separately from the groove structure. Since scratches and dirt could also affect the playback during a normal playing of the object, IRENE can also produce a version more akin to the original recording, since the scan will include a deeper reading of the groove.
Posted by vad17 at July 28, 2008 01:21 PM
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