[Vintage-Audio] REading Grroves with Photos rather than using a needle

[Sheldon Daitch]

Using methods derived from work on instrumentation for particle physics 
Carl Haber has investigated the problem of audio reconstruction from 
mechanical recordings.  The idea was to acquire digital maps of the 
surface of the media, without contact, and then apply image analysis 
methods to recover the audio data and reduce noise.  This work has been 
described in two papers which have been published in the Journal of the 
Audio Engineering Society (J. Audio Eng. Soc., vol. 51, no. 12, 
pp.1172-1185 (2003 Dec.) (link) 
<http://www-cdf.lbl.gov/%7Eav/JAES-paper-LBNL.pdf>, and J. Audio Eng. 
Soc., vol. 53, no.6, pp.485-508 (2005 June)) (link) 
<http://www-cdf.lbl.gov/%7Eav/cylinder-paper-PVF.pdf>. The most recent 
status reports on this research were presented at various meetings in 
Fall/Spring 2006-2007 and can be downloaded here (contains many sound 
clips).

see also:

http://ireme.lbl.gov

73
Sheldon