This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will create new software for automatically creating textured, 3D digital models of cuneiform inscriptions from multiple digital photographs and for automatically performing geometric character recognition on the impressions in order to derive meaning. The proposed system (more accurate, faster, and a more effective detective tool than any current alternative) comprises: (1) reconstructing detailed models of cuneiform tablets from multiple photographs; (2) isolating individual cuneiform strokes and distinguishing meaningful characters from background cracks; (3) classifying, against lexicons, the characters based on geometric characteristics; and (4) performing preliminary automatic word identification leading to translation of the texts. Ancient written records (Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets; Egyptian hieroglyphic carvings; or Roman political inscriptions) hold the keys to understanding our cultural heritage, but go unread because there are too many of them, their translation takes too long, and there are too few linguistic experts. Other arenas have objects with surface impressions (tire tracks, bootprints, and fossil remains) that must be measured for analysis and compared to like objects for identification, but such results cannot be efficiently obtained with current methods. The time lost, the inaccuracies created, and the potentially false interpretations presented can have dire consequences.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project are the significant benefits afforded to the target institutions allowing creation of accurate and precise 3D digital models of inscribed objects in their collections without the need for special equipment or experts. Since camera calibration, tripods, or special lighting are unnecessary, the process can be completed quickly, easily, and cheaply. Beyond the insight into the past that will inevitably accrue by using the proposed system, economic and technological advantages will motivate its commercial adoption. Museums, archaeological sites, and other collections need no longer pay for expensive scanners and their maintenance and upgrades, nor hire specialists to run the equipment and massage the results. Scholars need not travel to see inscriptions firsthand, still the traditional method of studying ancient written documents (photographs or drawings are insufficient for understanding the texts). The proposed system thus accomplishes many tasks the tools for which are unavailable; and it goes far beyond what has been attempted to aid the study and dissemination of information about ancient texts (e.g., Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative; Digital Hammurabi Project; Persepolis Foundation Archive). The software has extensive applications, such as in geology, forensics, and crime investigation, which we will explore in Phase II.
NSF SBIR Grant IIP-1215308 Phase I Public Outcomes Report composed and submitted by Donald H. Sanders, PI, President, Learning Sites, Inc., 151 Bridges Road, Williamstown MA 01267-2232 The Cuneiform Automated Translator (CUNAT) software makes translating ancient cuneiform inscriptions an efficient, accurate, and surprisingly quick process, thus providing educators, scholars, museum personnel, students, and the general public with new insight that will profoundly change our understanding of the ancient world. CUNAT is a mobile application with a cloud-based translation engine and searchable database. It was developed by Learning Sites with support of SBIR NSF grant IIP-1215308, entitled Extracting Valuable Information Automatically from Objects with Surface Impressions via Photographs and Interactive Digital Surrogates. CUNAT will also offer a searchable database for research on ancient locations, people, and events mentioned in translated texts (a rare feature among existing datasets). By-products of CUNAT are cloud-based data access and processing, leading-edge photomodeling tools, interactive 3D model viewers, innovative museum exhibit support, and unique collaborative research and educational materials. The CUNAT method of studying and translating ancient inscriptions will be online, automatic, more cost-effective, and faster than traditional manual practices, making CUNAT an exciting new detective tool (for museums, archaeological sites, libraries, and other collections who need not layout funds for expensive 3D scanners and their accompanying maintenance and upgrade costs nor continually look to find and hire experts). CUNAT will provide anyone with an interest in the past with a highly interactive software toolkit that assists with creating 3D models, choosing dictionaries, languages and dialects, and selecting from among alternative translations to refine their results. History is the interpretation of evidence about the past. There are hundreds of thousands of ancient inscriptions that tell us exactly what happened in the words of the very people whose actions form our history--but these inscriptions languish, untranslated. Cuneiform is the first writing script, and one used for over a dozen ancient languages covering over 3000 years of history. The inscriptions that have been translated are the basis for much of our understanding of our shared cultural past, touching everything from the Bible to the rise of civilization itself. However the immense volume of unstudied and untranslated inscriptions still have more to tell us. "Cuneiform text genres include everything from ephemera to literary masterpieces, from medical treatises to historical texts, mathematical and grammatical exercises, beer recipes, international treaties, musical scores, legal codes, religious rituals, sales receipts, maps, and astronomical tables. Because sun-dried or fired clay tablets are reasonably durable, they have been preserved in the sands of the Near East for millennia, and museums around the world have acquired approximately 400,000 tablets, with thousands being unearthed every year. Cuneiform scholars continue to make unique and valuable contributions to the study of history, law, religion, linguistics, mathematics, and science (Digital Hammurabi Project, c.2007)." Traditionally, when studying cuneiform, one had to learn the dialect or find one of the few experts to perform the research, transcription, and translation. Institutions or other groups with large numbers of cuneiform-inscribed objects are at greater disadvantages. The manual translation process is slow and tedious. Further, there are burdensome impositions in terms of time and costs of obtaining good quality copies of the inscribed objects or traveling to the place where the objects are stored. Even when the final results are obtained, there is no central database of the translated texts; thus, there is no way of knowing whether particular passages, keywords, or phrases have already been translated, and there is no way to search across different kinds of translated materials. The same can be said for inscriptions in ancient Greek, Latin, hieroglyphics, or other languages and scripts around the world. CUNAT sets out to remedy the current situation, allowing everyone an equal ability to generate quick and detailed interactive 3D models and to read and comprehend normally inaccessible ancient writings. CUNAT is not yet commercially available, but versions of it should be appearing within a year.
