New gravestone ID technology created

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists are developing scanning technology software to aid archeologists in identifying names on centuries-old gravestones.

Yang Cai, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Ambient Intelligence Laboratory, said the new software will enable researchers to scan 200-year-old gravestones at Old St. Luke's Church in Carnegie, Pa., to help its Episcopal pastor identify all the names on the cemetery's tombstones.

"We are very excited and pleased that Professor Cai and his research team are helping us reclaim our past by identifying some of the 20 graves at our cemetery," said Rev. Richard Davis, director of the church that was established in 1765 as a stockade church for British soldiers.

"We are exploring new 3-D reconstruction technology to decipher the gravestone names," said Cai. "Essentially, we reconstruct the tombstone surfaces by applying filtering and detection algorithms for revealing the words on the archaic surfaces.

"Our goal is to take the guess work out of archeology and make this reconstruction technology available for a variety of other industry sectors, such as the security and medical fields," said Cai.