Paranoid types are going to have to start burning their documents if this thing catches on. Researchers in Germany have developed a software program to undo paper shredding. The project was undertaken to reassemble about 45 million shredded pages of police documents torn to some 600 million scraps 18 years ago.
As Bertram Nickolay of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology put it to Nature mag:
The pieces of torn documents are scanned on both sides, and the digital images are then analysed by a cluster of 16 computers for 25 features, including colour, shape, texture, handwriting and typeface,
It’s only a matter of time before the IRS gets their hands on this and the whole CrunchGear house of cards comes tumbling down.
Where’s my lighter? (not used since the last 80’s Hair Metal Summer Tour came to town)
Of course it makes you wonder what grade of paper shredder they were using, because some shredders this would obviously be imposable.
I wonder how the paper was torn? I think it would be rather difficult even for a computer to piece together paper shredded by a cross cut shredder. If the paper was cut into strips then I think it would be an easy but arduous process.
The multifacet use of shredder which has Convenient – feature Auto On/Off and reverse function to clear overloads. Secure – Choose from straight-cut or higher security / bulk reducing cross-cut models.