Digitizing the Iliad using Robots and Cameras

Wired has an interesting story about work that is being done on creating high quality scans and digital images of the oldest known copy of Homer's Iliad. The book is stored in the Public Library of St. Mark in Venice. Almost all modern copies of the Iliad are based on this manuscript. A team of scholars organized by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies is carefully photographing each page in an attempt to digitize the book. They are also scanning a 3D image of each page, with all its wrinkles and blemishes, using a laser scanner attached to a robotic arm. Eventually they plan to make the entire book available online.

Check out the story here at Wired: Robot Scans Ancient Manuscript in 3-D
A wired photo gallery of the team in action: Scanning the Iliad With a 39-Megapixel Camera