Digital Radiography and X-ray Computed Tomography (DR/XCT)
The MAE project has concentrated on two primary
applications of Digital Radiography (DR) to archaeological materials: direct digital radiography and x-ray computed tomography
(XCT). Previous applications of x-ray imaging technology in archaeology have focused on the use of analog (film) radiographic
imaging methods to assess internal, macro-scale structural features of archaeological materials, particularly ceramics. In
the current project, we are making the transition from analog to digital radiographic imaging methods. Some adjustments in
technique are needed due to the differing means utilized by the image sensors for detecting energies from the x-ray source,
but the principles remain essentially unchanged, resulting in digital images showing macro-scale internal structures. While
there is presently a slight loss of effective resolution in the present direct digital images over the older analog (film)
images, the overall benefit of generating direct digital images comes through the expanding repertoire of techniques for
digital image processing and sophisticated digital image analysis. The benefit of generating digital images is tremendous,
but this is nowhere felt more strongly than in the processing and analysis of three-dimensional computed tomographic image
data. In the MAE project, we are developing original procedures for application of computed tomography techniques to
archaeological materials. Because of the time and effort involved in the acquisition, processing, and analysis of the
resultant data using XRT, this method is being developed as a second-stage in a radiographic analysis strategy.Following
the transfer of computer code technology from SINDE to UC, MAE programmers have ported the reconstruction code written at ANL
to a Sun Solaris computing platform in order to run it on the Department of Anthropology's 8-processor server. This allows
independent data processing to occur at UC and provides ANL developers with multi-platform-enhanced computer techniques for
the back-projection and reconstruction of large-scale XCT datasets. Over the next year this code will be multithreaded,
allowing the full exploitation of the department's 8-processor server and enhancing the computing capability on SINDE's local
computer cluster through multiprocessor techniques.
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