MORE ON THE NUTILT COIN IMAGING FORMAT

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V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 35, August 30, 2020, Article 12

A couple readers had comments and questions about the NuTilt coin imaging technology discussed last week. I passed these along to John Brush at David Lawrence Rare Coins, and he responded in a new blog post. With permission, we're republishing the exchange here. Thanks! -Editor

We've received quite a bit of feedback in the past week regarding our trial release of nuTilt imaging. It's truly been rather exciting for us here at DLRC. While we released it to “test” the project before a full release, it was picked up and broadcast by a number of places and it brought us a lot of feedback regarding the program. Our friends at The E-Sylum were the first to broadcast the new technology and it brought about some really great questions.

As far as feedback goes, we've talked to a number of customers this week with very positive comments as well with some constructive suggestions. We're working on all of these as quickly as we can, but we still want more feedback. So, please feel free to shoot me an email at john@davidlawrence.com with any comments you may have!

We have learned over the years that collectors prefer more viewpoints on coins and that's our motivation behind the concept. As for the questions, the best ones came from a pair of E-Sylum readers and I've tried to address those here. To aid in the format of this blog, I've distilled these long form discussions into central points and paraphrased them a bit for clarity and brevity.

"I've wanted something like this for years. It is particularly important for raw foreign coins. There was a shield nickel I noticed as a good example of what can be accomplished - there's a striation (scratch or "mark") to the right of the shield that only pops up at a certain incident light angle. Only a small percentage of angles would show it, and that's even ignoring the incentives for vendors to not pick that one.

"Part 2: Sadly, all the talk about patents suggests it is going to be slow in adoption, despite the need and ingenuity of the process. Much of the adoption rate will depend upon the cost of the imaging equipment."

Yes, this has been exactly what is missing. When you can't examine a coin closely in-hand, you only see a portion of the coin's character. nuTilt is built to show exactly all aspects of the coin. In today's world where transparency is the key, we viewed this as an opportunity for the collector to be more informed about the coin.

Unfortunately due to the costs of development that was put into this project, a patent really is necessary. This has been in the works for several years and the equipment is quite impressive (and expensive). So, it's necessary for us to do so to protect the investment. That being said, it will soon be available to all that want to take advantage of the software. Yes, there's a cost to it, but we'll be accepting submissions in early 2021.

"1. It seems like a big advance in imagery technology. I am not aware of any other way to achieve the effect of "tilting" a coin so as to show surfaces from a slightly different angle other than to actually tilt a coin in your hand.

"2. It would make me more comfortable in buying a coin without actually physically examining it first, since it does seem to be a big improvement over static images.

"3. I would like to know more about the technical specifications, especially about lighting, to understand how the imaging effects are created.

"4. One thing that appears to be an issue is the level of detail possible. If I wanted to focus on a small area--say, around the date, or on a few of the denticles-- could I control the program to allow the tilt to focus on that area? Could I slow down, or even freeze the tilt, while looking at that area?"

John:
1. Yes. There are some other technologies in other businesses, but they are distinctly different. When the app launches with the full launch next month, it'll be even more dramatic and you'll see why we're even more excited!

2. Yes, that's the absolute goal of this. It could prevent the need for traveling to auctions, coin shows, and other places when it's not possible. When COVID-19 became an issue, it caused us to push even harder towards finalizing the technology…

3. Unfortunately we can't discuss the specifications at this time. We're constantly tinkering with these, but it's what has taken years to develop.

4. YES! The app makes it VERY easy to do this. With the web-based version, you can right click your mouse and focus on a certain part of the coin and then zoom in from there. You can use the “auto-swirl” feature at many different speeds from there allowing you to identify varieties as well. The app allows you to tilt the coin or you can allow the image to do it at varying speeds, whichever you prefer. There's also a handy help button at the top of the screen designed to help you with the other functions that nuTilt offers.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
COIN IMAGING FORMAT: NUTILT (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n34a06.html)