Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

i am doing research for my science fair project and we have to invent a tool that would help with a science career that we had chosen earlier in the year. i had chose to be an archaeologist. i had invented a portable wrist decoder that will help decode words and symbols on artifacts found in different areas of the world and from different times. do you know of any other invention like this???

That sounds like a handy thing to have!

Since building a magical artifact that uses sorcery to identify archaeological relics is not an option, it sounds to me like your project would best be approached as an information technology problem. There are wonderful, powerful consumer technologies that can become very useful scientific tools with the right software tweaks.

For example, the iPhone already exists as a device that can take pictures of artifacts, locate them in space with GPS, attach field notes to the image, and upload the images to the Web for archiving, annotation, or other manipulation. Perhaps you could write an app that would, for example, try to identify the alphabet an inscription is written in by comparing a picture to an online database of modern and ancient alphabets and scripts; or automatically link pictures and notes of artifacts as you unearth them in the field to mapping information (from the phone GPS) using Google Earth to create an interactive map of a dig site in real time.

It's really software development, not hardware development, that is the real frontier for imaging, analyzing, and embedding field data with the universe of data available on the Web. Computational methods also probably are the only realistic way to approach making a device that does anything useful to "decode" symbols or writings (a cryptography problem) Why don't you try posting your questions in the computer science area to see if you get some helpful suggestions there?

Best,

Will

i am doing research for my science fair project and we have to invent a tool that would help with a science career that we had chosen earlier in the year. i had chose to be an archaeologist. i had invented a portable wrist decoder that will help decode words and symbols on artifacts found in different areas of the world and from different times. do you know of any other invention like this???
Moo Moo

Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2010 3:50 pm
Occupation: Student: 6th grade
Project Question: i wanted to find out if Archaeologists ever had any thing like a portable wrist decoder that would help them to decode symbols or words from different countries or time periods??
Project Due Date: November 1, 2010.
Project Status: I am conducting my research

Moo Moo I have never Heard Of An Invention Like this It Is Unique Although I'm Not An Expert in This Field I Think It Would Help A Lot Of Archeoligists With Their Jobs Although You Should Not Have Posted In Math And Computer Science This Post Should Probably Go In Physical Science









Victor Gray
"Taking Things One Step At A Time"

by Moo Moo » Fri Oct 29, 2010 11:27 am

i am doing research for my science fair project and we have to invent a tool that would help with a science career that we had chosen earlier in the year. i had chose to be an archaeologist. i had invented a portable wrist decoder that will help decode words and symbols on artifacts found in different areas of the world and from different times. do you know of any other invention like this???
Moo Moo

Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2010 3:50 pm
Occupation: Student: 6th grade
Project Question: i wanted to find out if Archaeologists ever had any thing like a portable wrist decoder that would help them to decode symbols or words from different countries or time periods??
Project Due Date: November 1, 2010.
Project Status: I am conducting my research

Moo Moo,

How does it work? Is it digital or computerized? As Victor mentioned, this is the Math and Computer Science thread, so you should either have some kind of computerized device (or at least a computer program) or a clever mathematical way to decode things.

Moo Moo,

I noticed that you posted the same question in three different forums. While I think I understand your train of thought from looking at all three threads, most of our experts only read one of these forums, so they won't see the advice you've already been given. I've merged all the conversations together here.

Will's response to your first post had some great advice, and I'm guessing you liked it since you posted in the math and computer science forum after reading it. At this point it would really help us if you could give us a bit more information:

- Does your assignment require you to build a working prototype of your invention, or do you simply need to describe what it does?
- How much programming experience/interest do you have and how much time do you have to complete the project?
- What do you think of Will's advice? If you want to try to write a program, what is one specific function that you'd like it to perform?

Amanda