The Many Uses of Polynomial Texture Mapping

One would not expect the Philae lander and the Philae obelisk to have any connection at all. In fact, the Philae lander is currently being used to study the comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. On the other hand, the Philae obelisk is being used to study ancient handwriting from the Egyptians over 200 years ago. While both are studying parts of history, they now have one other thing in common. Both types of being connected through technology using sensors.

To better understand both types of discoveries, you have to travel back in time to gather their origins. Over 2,100 years ago, some priests were looking to petition the king about some tax cuts. Due to their success, they decided to create an obelisk outlying how they managed to do it. The prayers were writing in hieroglyphs. After the fall of the Roman empire, the hieroglyphs were unable to be recognized. Centuries later, Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion managed to crack the hieroglyphs by using both the Philae obelisk and the Rosetta stone.

With new technology known as polynomial texture mapping (PTM), scientists can start to understand the inscriptions on the Philae obelisk. Not only are they able to transcribe this ancient writing, but many others in museums are being unlocked with the newest technology. With the PTM technology, scientists can uncover much more than just what they see with their eyes. In fact, thetopography of a paper can be analysed much more clearer and help uncover scribes that were fading. Museums all over the world are starting to make it a normal protocol to use this technology in their archives. The PTM doesn’t just take a photo of the paper, but it also captures texture revealing many other facts. This same technology is now being used on the Philae lander to uncover the composition of an asteroid. It will be interesting to see how the PTM will handle things other than ancient documents and instead matter form outer space.