SKC Science & Technology Webinar

How can we use Machine Learning and Multispectral Imaging to unlock the Mysteries of a Medieval Spanish Chant?

Date/Time: Thursday, January 27, 2022, 7:00pm Indian Standard Time

Speaker: Jeff Rydberg-Cox, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA

YouTube recording at: https://youtu.be/bHA_NZUCAtQ

Abstract: The text in a Medieval Spanish chant book was changed repeatedly when it was in active use and the pages have been damaged over time. Our research uses machine learning and multispectral imaging to recover the damaged and deleted text from books such as this one. The goal is to reveal text that has been obscured or erased, identify the different inks that were used to create the pages, discover hidden materials that were used as part of the binding process, and reveal the ways that materials have been used over time. In this talk, I’ll discuss how we conduct this investigation to find the changes and how our methods can apply to other manuscripts and books.

Bio: Jeff Rydberg-Cox is Curators' Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a courtesy appointment in Computer Science. He is also Director of the Classical and Ancient Studies Program. He does research on methodologies for digitizing texts and other materials in the humanities, multispectral analysis of manuscripts and early printed books, statistical analysis of Ancient Greek texts and applying techniques from the field of network analysis to literary texts. He received his Ph.D. from the Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World at the University of Chicago, USA and his B.A. in Classics-History-Politics at The Colorado College, USA.

Target Audience: This is for a wider audience. In particular, higher secondary and college students and teachers are welcome.

This webinar will be conducted over Zoom. The Zoom link will be available to registrants (sent to their email addresses) shortly before the webinar starts.

This webinar is part of SKC Science and Technology Webinar Series.

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