Advanced Digitization Techniques in Retrieval of Mechanism and Machine Science Resources

Abstract

The European project thinkMOTION works on the purpose of retrieving all-times content regarding mechanisms and machine science by means of creating a digital library, accessible to a broad public through the portal Europeana. DMG-Lib is intended to display the development in the field, from its very beginning up to now days. There is a large range of significant objects available, physically very heterogeneous and needing all to be digitized. The paper presents the workflow, the equipments and specific techniques used in digitization of documents featuring very different characteristics (size, texture, color, degree of preservation, resolution and so on). Once the workflow established on very detailed steps, the development of the workstation is treated. Special equipments designed and assembled at Universitatea “Politehnica” Timisoara are presented. A large series of software applications, including original programs, work for digitization itself, processing of images, management of files, automatic optoelectronic control of capture, storage of information in different stages of processing. An illustrating example is explained, showing the steps followed in order to obtain a clear, high-resolution image from an old original document (very valuable as a historical proof but very poor in quality regarding clarity, contrast and resolution).