Mario Latendresse’s Shroud Scope is still my favorite Go-To site for exploring shroud images (The Enrie and Durante 2002 images). But I must also praise the facility offered by the Diocese of Turin of the Haltadefinizione images on the web. It is another Go-To site.
Although based on the Haltadefinizione scans, it does not have the high definition quality of the iPad app, Shroud 2.0. But that is not what this web-based tool is for. It’s a simple, easy way for the public at large to explore the shroud’s image online. As a Go-To spot for the general public, it may be the best.
A few features:
- As with Mario’s facility, you can move the image about – left and right, and up and down – by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the image about. Movement is smooth.
- Also, as with Mario’s tool, you can zoom up and down with a mouse scroll wheel or with clickable buttons. Zoom sizes stated as percentages are simply relative values and have nothing to do with real size measurements.
- To rotate the image 90 degrees simply click on the rotation buttons.
- Four languages are supported at this time: 1) Italian, 2) English, 3) French and 4) Russian. Clickable explanations of different parts of the images are excellent and they support on-the-fly Bing or Google translation into numerous other languages. Here is one example of an explanation:
The tool does not offer rectangle drawing for copying parts of images but that is unnecessary with simple tools that are now part of every standard operating systems (I used Window’s notebook for the above extracts).
Resolution looks good but the file is still very limited in terms of size (it need not be). If you want really high definition you will need to use Shroud 2.0 from which the following image of the epsilon bloodstain was taken in my iPhone. Yes, my iPhone! And then I doubled it just for the fun of it. It is even bigger and better on an iPad. The app and image stream is available from iTunes. The app is free and the data is $3.99.
“If you want really high definition you will need to use Shroud 2.0 from which the following image of the epsilon bloodstain was taken in my iPhone. “
Why is it that each time I see a Shroud 2.0 image, courtesy of someone else’s iPad or iPhone, in this case Dan’s, the field of view quickly becomes obscured with a drifting mirage like-object that bears an uncanny resemblance to a chocolate teapot? Might it be something to do with utility, or rather lack thereof? Why is there scarcely any useful information content in those 2.0 images? Think I exaggerate? OK. Then increase the magnification of the 2.0 blood image above, all the while comparing with any of the higher magnification Mark Evans blood images (admittedly there’s not one of the epsilon for total like-for-like comparison). The 2.0 image above simply becomes pixel soup, and at no stage gives the slightest hint of the wealth of detail in a typical Evans photomicrograph in which blood appears highly heterogeneous – an array of thinly scattered dense dark red patches against a diffuse pink background (which still requires explanation).
The same goes for body image, for much the same reason. There’s scarcely any differentiation between body image and non-image regions. Sure, one can obtain it, whether ‘valid’ or not, by uploading images into a photoediting program, and playing around with contrast, brightness and midtone values. But that sort of thing is best suited to a PC. Shroud 2,0, for reasons best known to Halta Definizione licensees and the Shroud’s owners is not directly downloadable to laptops, being targeted at a (let’s not mince our words) gimmicky app-captivated market needing credit card or PayPal, Google Wallet, other Big Brotherish details. Maybe it’s more about building customer databases for future targeting? Who knows? The internet and its site-recording cookies gets nosier and more intrusive with each passing day…
Personally I’d prefer to invest in a chocolate teapot. It may be lacking somewhat in essential functionality, but at least when new and shiny it’s nice to look at.