In an attempt to help end Italy’s enduring dilemma with faked and stolen artwork, a geophysicist named Pietro Cosentino has come with the idea of employing “Sonic fingerprinting“. Well designed masterpieces are always in the top list of the burglars and the actual fifth-century-B.C. artifact, Italian funeral urn Cratere dei Niobidi that is going to be exhibited in Beijing might be the next target for them.
The real antique urn tempted the geophysicist to think of using sonic tomography as a technique to protect artifacts from getting stolen or cloned. The unique system works by fitting an array of sensors on the inside and outside of the artifact, and when tapped with a rubber hammer, software can record the sonic fingerprint that will only match up with the original. The process takes a few hours and can be used on stone, wood, and ceramics.
The sonic fingerprint can act as a strong shield against phony and theft since the unique identifiers can be stored for future reference. Italy, which touts a horde of valued artifacts, has been in vain for a long time in protecting them against thefts and forgeries. However, sonic fingerprinting system is yet to be patented and yes, it has some shortcomings too of which I don’t have any idea at the moment.
Since the system costs about $19,000 to $26,000 (plus the trained staff required to run it), I doubt it will make its way to a large number of museums.
Image: liceopetrarcats
Via: Wired
