18 February 2008

Digital facsimiles of rare books

Via my friend and colleague Li Kim Lee, I learn about a seminar on Wednesday (20 February): Turning the Pages 2.0: 3D digital audio-facsimile of manuscripts and rare books, by Michael Stocking of Armadillo Systems at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at Kings College London. "Turning the Pages is a technology for creating interactive 3D facsimile of books. It powers an ongoing digitisation programme of the most treasured, illuminated manuscripts and rare books in the British Library, National Library of Ireland, USA National Library of Medicine, and other libraries and archives." For more information and links, see 3DVisA Index of 3D Projects. Advanced visualisation techniques made it possible to make interactive digital facsimiles available online. Pages can be turned virtually and examined in close detail, using a virtual magnifying glass. Perhaps the most wonderful attraction is Mozart’s Musical Diary, accompanied by 75 audio excerpts.

18 Feb 2008 22:21:47 | Books

1 Comment

Henry Gee

I saw an exhibit of such 3D facsimiles at the British Library some years ago, perhaps when the technology was new and they'd only digitized a few books. It was eerie, 'turning' the pages of these ancient manuscripts.

Posted by: Henry Gee | 20 February 2008 at 06:32

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