An innovative scanner<\/a> created by an NYU computer scientist is allowing scientists to digitize previously isolated fossils in remote South American regions. Claudio Silva\u2019s PaleoScan provides a portable and affordable way to preserve and share collections of ancient impressions that may have otherwise been lost or smuggled.<\/p>\n Brazil\u2019s Araripe Basin is lush with ancient fossils, some in unusually pristine condition. After a visit to the nearby Pl\u00e1cido Cidade Nuvens Museum of Paleontology (MPPCN), where many of them are stored, Silva saw \u201ca labyrinth of floor-to-ceiling metal shelving units\u201d that was \u201cstacked high with piles of the most beautiful fossils he\u2019d ever seen\u201d from the Cretaceous period, as described by<\/a> Smithsonian Magazine<\/em>. The problem was the collection of insects, fish, turtles and pterosaurs from a distant past hadn\u2019t been digitized. And, given the region\u2019s limited funding, staffing and remote location (getting there requires a flight on a four-seater puddle-jumper of a plane), there wasn\u2019t much hope for remedying that.<\/p>\n Another problem the museum (and others like it) faced was illegal fossil trafficking. The Araripe Basin is a prime target for the ruthless exploitation of historical resources by smugglers and wealthier nations. Digitizing the fossils could help thwart that practice \u2014 both by providing virtual scans, which help offset the risk-benefit ratio for smugglers, and by creating a global dataset paleontologists could use to trace stolen artifacts to their source.<\/p>\n \u201cEmpowering resource-poor museums and institutions to scan their own fossils and provide virtual versions of those fossils to the rest of the world, I think, would really help the scientific community, but also the institutions themselves,\u201d paleontologist Akinobu Watanabe with the New York Institute of Technology told Smithsonian Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n Silva, an expert in graphics visualization and geometry processing, saw an opportunity. He departed the MPPCN, promising to return in two years to help digitize their collection. Given the breadth of that task, it wouldn\u2019t have been surprising to hear some snickers or sarcastic jokes from staff after he took off on his flight back to the US.<\/p>\n The solution Silva created is PaleoScan, a low-cost, high-throughput scanner that he packed into \u201clarge wooden boxes\u201d on his journey back to MPPCN in the summer of 2023. Designed to fill in the gaps between hard-to-reach fossil collections and the global community of paleontologists, the device produces high-quality 3D fossil reconstructions through cheap and relatively portable scanning.<\/p>\n Adaptable for different fossil sizes, PaleoScan uses a downward-facing camera on an automatic gantry. Its calibration board allows for batch scanning with simple correction for scale and offset camera positioning. The device costs less than commercial 3D fossil scanners, is more easily transportable than CT (computed tomography) scanners and is much easier to operate, even for the less technically inclined.<\/p>\n PaleoScan\u2019s camera is mounted to a frame moving on two axes. It takes \u201cthousands of individual raw photos of a fossil under controlled light conditions,\u201d as described by Smithsonian Magazine<\/em>. Meanwhile, the person operating it only needs to navigate a touchscreen (which, in videos, appears to be a repurposed mobile device).<\/p>\n Once scanned, the photo batch is uploaded to the cloud for processing, where software stitches them together into highly detailed 3D models. The processed data can then be saved in a metadatabase and made available via an API for paleontologists around the world to study and share. (Think something like a GitHub for fossil enthusiasts.)<\/p>\n The researchers say the resulting reconstructions are validated as highly accurate. Museum workers can receive tutorial videos with step-by-step instructions for operating the scanner.<\/p>\n Over 200 unique fossils, using over a terabyte of high-quality data, have already been digitized at the MPPCN, and the response from the paleontology community has been receptive and enthusiastic. Researchers unrelated to the project were impressed with the scanner and hoped to get their hands on versions for other remote regions in Mexico and Chile. Some have requested an upgraded model with true 3D capabilities rather than the current two-axis version ideal for the Araripe Basin\u2019s mostly flat fossils, something Silva says is already in the works.<\/p>\n For more on PaleoScan\u2019s innovation and future, you can check out the research paper and Smithsonian Magazine\u2019s in-depth write-up<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n