A group of American and European researchers developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to read unopened letters written 300 years ago.
Announcing a world first! Our amazing interdisciplinary team has virtually unfolded and read an unopened letter from 1697 without breaking its seal, and officially launched #letterlocking as a field of study in Nature Communications. https://t.co/LWUqQhVXvq #OA [going live today] pic.twitter.com/jZc9rJaKoy
— Letterlocking (@letterlocking) March 2, 2021
To decipher the text from sealed letters, the team scanned the folded documents using X-ray equipment typically used in dentistry.
The AI algorithms then aligned the scanned images and generated 2D and 3D reconstructions of the letters in both folded and flat states. They also produced surface images for the writing and for the folds drawn on the documents.
«We could simply break open these letters, but instead we took the time to study their hidden, secret, and inaccessible qualities», – said Daniel Starza-Smith, a lecturer in early modern English literature at King’s College London.
The letters contain valuable information about the past, and the wrappings themselves are also valuable historical artifacts.
«Our work is aimed at preserving cultural heritage. As soon as a document, such as an unopened letter, is damaged in the process of opening, we lose the sense of a pristine object», – the researchers wrote in their paper.
The deciphered documents were securely sealed using an archaic process known as “letterlocking.” The intricate system of folds and slits allows a sheet of paper to be turned into a separate envelope and protected against unauthorized access.
One of the documents read with the aid of AI was a letter dated July 31, 1697, sent by a lawyer named Jacques Sennac to his cousin Pierre Le Pers, a French merchant living in The Hague.
Here it is virtually unfolded and astonishingly legible. Remember, this packet is still unopened: its seal has never been broken! pic.twitter.com/C2R6j3gDWY
— Letterlocking (@letterlocking) March 2, 2021
In the letter, the sender persistently asks his cousin for information about the death of another relative and reminds him of a service he had rendered for the cousin in the past.
Sennac’s letter, in itself, did not reveal radical views of the seventeenth century. But analyzed alongside other documents, it could expand understanding of the culture, politics and people of early modern Europe.
Researchers say that their method could unlock a number of other historical texts as well, such as scrolls and books.
In February 2021, the company MyHeritage unveiled an online service using artificial intelligence, Deep Nostalgia to create the effect of movement in a static portrait photograph.
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