astronomy

Venice Time Machine

Venice Time Machine is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Venice Time Machine rather than just read about it. In short: The Venice Time Machine is a large international project launched by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in 2012 that aims to build a collaborative multidimensional model of Venice by creating an open digital archive of the city's cultural heritage covering more than 1,000 years of evolution. The project aims to trace circulation of news, money, commercial goo…

Key takeaways

Venice Time Machine belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Venice Time Machine to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Venice Time Machine from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Venice Time Machine is a large international project launched by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in 2012 that aims to build a collaborative multidimensional model of Venice by creating an open digital archive of the city's cultural heritage covering more than 1,000 years of evolution. The project aims to trace circulation of news, money, commercial goods, migration, artistic and architectural patterns amongst others to create a Big Data of the Past. Its fulfillment would represent the largest database ever created on Venetian documents. The project is an example of the new area of scholar activity that has emerged in the Digital Age: Digital Humanities. The project's widespread critical acclaim led to the submission of a European counterpart proposal to the European Commission in April 2016. The Venice Time Machine forms the technological basis of the proposed European Time Machine. The first full reconstruction of Venice showing the evolution of the city between 900 and 2000 was shown at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2018. The Venice Time Machine model of the city of Venice in 1750 was also used for an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in September 2018.

Organisation and funding The Venice Time Machine Project was launched by EPFL and the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in 2012. It includes collaboration from major Venetian patrimonial institutions: the State Archive in Venice, The Marciana Library, The Instituto Veneto and the Cini Foundation. The project is currently supported by the READ (Recognition and Enrichment of Archival Documents) European eInfrastructure project, the SNF project Linked Books and ANR-SNF Project GAWS. The international board includes renowned scholars from Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, and Oxford. In 2014, The Lombard Odier Foundation joined the project Venice Time Machine as a financial partner.

Technology and tools The State Archives of Venice contain a massive amount of hand-written documentation in languages evolving from medieval times to the 20th century. An estimated 80 km of shelves are filled with over a thousand years of administrative documents, from birth registrations, death certificates and tax statements, all the way to maps and urban planning designs. These documents are often very delicate and are occasionally in a fragile state of conservation. The diversity, amount and accuracy of the Venetian administrative documents are unique in Western history. By combining this mass of information, it is possible to reconstruct large segments of the city's past: complete biographies, political dynamics, or even the appearance of buildings and entire neighborhoods.

Scanning Paper documents are turned into high-resolution digital images with the help of scanning machines. Different types of documents impose various constraints on the type of scanning machines that can be used and on the speed at which a document can be scanned. In partnership with industry, EPFL is working on a semi-automatic, robotic scanning unit capable of digitizing about 1000 pages per hour. Multiple units of this kind will be built to create an efficient digitization pipeline adapted to ancient documents. Another solution currently being explored at EPFL involves scanning books without turning the pages at all. This technique uses X-ray synchrotron radiation produced by a particle accelerator.

Transcription The graphical complexity and diversity of hand-written documents make transcription a daunting task. For the Venice Time Machine, scientists are currently developing novel algorithms that can transform images into probable words. The images are automatically broken down into sub-images that potentially represent words. Each sub-image is compared to other sub-images, and classified according to the shape of word it features. Each time a new word is transcribed, it allows millions of other word transcripts to be recognized in the database.

Text processing The strings of probable words are then turned into possible sentences by a text processor. This step is accomplished by using, among other tools, algorithms inspired by protein structure analysis that can identify recurring patterns.

Connecting data The real wealth of the Venetian archives lies in the connectedness of its documentation. Several keywords link different types of documents, which makes the data searchable. This cross-referencing of imposing amounts of data organizes the information into giant graphs of interconnected data. Keywords in sentences are linked together into giant graphs, making it possible to cross-reference vast amounts of data, thereby allowing new aspects of information to emerge. The Digital Humanities Laboratory of EPFL announced on 1 March 2016 the development of REPLICA, a new search engine for the study and enhanced use of the Venetian cultural heritage to be online by the end of 2016.

Reception

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Venice Time Machine

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Venice Time Machine claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Venice Time Machine before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Venice Time Machine ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Venice Time Machine

In research: Venice Time Machine appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Venice Time Machine in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Venice Time Machine is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2012 establishments in Italy, Big data, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Venice Time Machine outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Venice Time Machine in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Venice Time Machine means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Venice Time Machine out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Venice Time Machine in simple terms?

Why does Venice Time Machine matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Venice Time Machine?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Venice Time Machine.