The written word has been used throughout history to chronicle and contemplate the human experience, but many valuable texts are “lost” to us due to damage. The words of these documents and the knowledge they seek to impart are locked behind the destruction and decay wrought by time and injury, while the physical manuscripts themselves form an “invisible library” of sorts — closeted away on dark shelves, well-protected but prevented from proffering knowledge and encouraging inquiry. For more than 20 years, Dr. Seales has been working to create and use hi-tech, non-invasive tools to rescue these lost texts from the blink of oblivion and restore them to humanity. We call this innovative process “virtual unwrapping.”
If you are interested in a research assistantship, please inquire about our open positions.
Global Competition to Read the Herculaneum Papyri Launched
Investigating the use of computer vision to perform automated analysis of barrels to identify faulty ones prior to filling. 
From Invisibility to Readability: Recovering the Ink of Herculaneum
Herculaneum Papyrus Scrolls – PHerc. 118
Chinese Dynastic Texts, National Palace Museum (Taiwan)
The Iliad, Marciana Library
Ecclesiastes Book Binding, The University of Michigan
Egyptian Scroll Prototype, The University of Kentucky
The Cotton Collection, The British Library
Beowulf, The British Library
