Re: [ARSCLIST] electronic reading of physical media, was: Preservation policy question

[stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lou Judson" <inaudio@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> This is great food for future-thinking - does anyone think it will 
> eventually become possible to make an image scan of a disc and have the 
> computer read it, in the way a scanner and OCR can turn documents into 
> type or ASCII code? And eventually magnetic tape might be read, the way 
> we used to use chemicals to make magnetic patterns visible? I would 
> think it was easily possible given advanced anough computers and 
> software...
Well, it shouldn't be too difficult for lateral-cut monophonic
records, since the path of the cut groove defines the waveform
which will be reproduced. Vertical-cut records would be more
complicated to read from image, since the modulation appears
as groove depth rather than groove path...and stereo records
carry both lateral and vertical information, thus presenting
a challenge!

Steven C. Barr