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How do you listen to an Edison cylinder without putting a needle in its grooves? A University of North Texas Digital Library entry describes a celluloid cylinder scanned in three dimensions using color coded confocal microscopy. The scan measured the groove surface without touching it. For anyone curious about an old recording, that means the cylinder’s grooves could be read without a playback needle running through them.
The entry explains that sound is stored in undulations of the groove. Optical measurements of its shape, combined with digital image processing, reconstructed the recorded information for playback. The entry also contrasts this three-dimensional cylinder scan with earlier two-dimensional work on a shellac disc. What limits the accuracy of sound reconstructed from a three-dimensional scan of a cylinder’s grooves?
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- How were groove measurements converted into audio? : Not yet investigated
- What limits the accuracy of the reconstructed sound? : Not yet investigated
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