Technology & Numismatics

[Madness]

A couple of thoughts have occurred to me:

1. Coins are three dimensional objects, but two-dimensional images capturing them can be hard to interpret due to differences with lighting, camera angle, shadows, reflections etc.  Is anyone aware of the application of 3D imaging technology to create a computer model of a coin's surfaces?  

2. Has machine-learning technology been applied to die analysis?  It should be possible for AI to recognise and contextualise features on coins (such as the position of letters in relation to one another) and compare specimens from a large sample in order to catergorise them into being the products of the same die.  Sure, there would be complications like wear and "touch-up" engraving, but it's possible that either AI could learn to account for this, or the AI could do the grunt work while a human interprets the results.  

Pretty keen to hear your experiences and research.  

[Mr T]

MATLAB has a 3D plot of a 1911 Wheat Cent (obverse I think) as an example - from memory it was a decent enough representation but no idea how they imported the data.

[Madness]

Is anyone aware of this project relating to computer-aided die studies?  Any more info available that you know off the top of your head?

http://numismatics.org/pocketchange/cads/