Audio preservation has evolved to the point where centuries-old recordings become computer files. From Edison’s phonograph that recorded onto wax cylinders, to vinyl (possibly the most debated form of recording), to the compact disc, these shifts focused primarily on audio quality. But there have been recordings for just that purpose: to preserve the audio. So when a possible recording showed up in the pages of a book, media preservationists took notice.

A few years ago, a survey was done of the different time-based media objects in the stacks of Indiana University’s Bloomington campus. An amazing 569,148 different forms were identified. What the report didn’t mention, however, was a hidden ‘record’. A member of the Media Preservation Initiative (MPI) at IU Bloomington discovered a circular picture buried in a volume of German reference books. While not the first ever audio recording, it revealed much more upon further inspection.

The disc-shaped image was titled “Der Handschuh,” which is a poem by Friedrich Schiller. The MPI investigator proceeded to apply some slick audio recording tricks to the image. After a high-resolution scan was done of the image, the spiral was converted into parallel lines by a process called polar-to-rectangular-coordinates transformation. The lines were then ‘pasted’ together used audio editing software.

If it hadn’t gotten tricky yet, it certainly did on the next step. According to the MPI’s website, the engineer “[ran] these images through ImageToSound, a program that converts them into WAV files as though they were variable-area optical film sound tracks.” A stereo track was made into a WAV, and the seemingly mundane picture in the book came audibly alive.

The image turned out to be a demonstration on how the lines theoretically contained enough information to produce sound. The technology was first created by Emile Berliner, the creator of the gramophone. But the picture found in the depths of Wells Hall at IU Bloomington turned out to be “the oldest known recording of a complete literary work in the German language.” It’s eons behind that FLAC rip you did of a CD in terms of audio quality, but the fact that it was digitized from a book is one amazing feat. The WAV file can be heard at MPI’s website.

The post Ripping Pages: Book Image Becomes a Digital Audio File first appeared on Gajitz.

Antarctica is the most mysterious continent on the planet. The 5,400,000-square mile land mass is completely covered with ice, and no human has ever seen it without its frigid shroud. After decades of research, NASA, with the assistance of the British Antarctic Survey and images from the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), has developed the most comprehensive topographic survey of the continent, sans ice.

To compile the proper data for the project, NASA looked at surface elevation, ice thickness and bedrock topography in order to best understand the region’s peaks and valleys. Another collaborator, an airborne data-collecting project called Operation IceBridge, gave the final image more detail. Data from the collaborators was collected for a decade, allowing researchers to analyze the intricate nuances of the continent.

According to the project’s website, “Antarctica plays a large role in the global climate system.” Aside from being an interesting project – showing humans something amazing for the first time – the survey gives researchers a better comprehension of ice melt. And having more details about the buried bedrock is crucial, as it gives them a better understanding of climate change.

This better understanding comes from being able to predict how the melting Antarctic ice could change ocean levels. Digging  in under the ice, so to speak, gives scientists a more thorough understanding of how the ice will move based on buried land features like mountains, slopes, and bumpy terrain.

The post After the Ice: Pics Strips Away Ice to Show Naked Antarctica first appeared on Gajitz.