The Next Trick for Literate Robots? Reading Closed Books

Researchers at Georgia Tech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing spectral imaging and machine learning algorithms to read closed books, according to a recently published research paper. The technology uses terahertz radiation (electromagnetic radiation between infrared light and microwaves) to scan pages in a book and identify the different letters. The camera shoots radiation at the book, producing distinct signals indicating where there's blank page or printed ink. The algorithm then processes the data and to distinguish individual letters. So far, however, the algorithm can detect 20 pages but only read through nine, researcher Barmak Heshmat tells Inverse, because the single from deeper pages is weaker. So how does this technology recognize letters?