COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN UFO RESEARCH
- AN UPDATE -
Maurizio Verga
INTRODUCTION
Since the early seventies a few UFO researchers thought
computers as a valuable tool to store available data for
efficient (statistical) analyses. Projects were very ambitious,
such as UFOCAT goal to file all worldwide sightings, yet
resources were mainly limited by from time to time availability
of large corporation mainframes where buffs were working.
Only in the second half of the eighties, when micro and
personal computer technology emerged as a mass-market,
conditions started being good for an actual use of computers
in UFO research. First of such conditions is surely a nearly
consumer-market level diffusion of hardware and software, so
that a significant number of buffs could have access to them.
As a consequence should follow the availability of a software
standard in order to have the same procedures for data input
and management. In reality, lack of coordination and differen-
ces existing among countries prevented the selection of an
accepted standard. This is the reason of so many unrelated
computer-based works and catalogues, each running through
different application software. Sometimes, buffs having a
programming skill produced their own database programs fea-
turing custom data structure and formats. As a major result,
data exchange (one of the primary goals of most UFO organiza-
tions) has always been difficult.
In order to get rid of this situation, adoption of a minimum
level of standards should be suggested to the now several
people using computers for UFO-related works. There are very
few simple rules to follow so to ensure an efficient easy data
exchange; see Table 1 for both Personal Computer and Apple
Macintosh.
Examples and experiments of software used for UFO research,
mainly devoted to storing of sighting data, have been several
and mostly reported by this same Author3 -4 . As of the time
lapse since the last estimation of the situation and remarkable
technology development, an update is necessary.
Most of reported applications come from this Author's direct
experience and work within Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici
(Italian Center for UFO Studies, Italy's largest UFO
association), as it is very difficult to have a clear
comprehensive picture of computer applications all around the
world. Add-ons and corrections are welcome, also in relation
to possible international cooperation.
First of all it is necessary to remember computer technology
offers only some powerful tools for manage efficiently and
process quickly the data collected by researchers since 1947.
Don't expect astounding answers to be displayed on a monitor
as a result of questions such as "What are UFOs ?" or "Where
do they come from ?"; that's science-fiction you are used to
watch on television or cinema theatres. Even theoretically
possible questions as "Could this report likely refer to a
natural phenomenon or an aircraft ?" are still far from being
actually satisfied; no special software package (based on
artificial intelligence or similar concepts) able to suggest
an interpretation automatically has been developed yet, even
though something more than a discussion had been started on
its. Software development requires skills and high investments
in time and money which amateur UFO researchers or groups
aren't able to afford.
Present state-of-the-art of computer applications to ufology
refers to storing - retrieving - presenting information, that
is mainly data management procedures. It's hard to find really
research-oriented works; their most popular example is image
enhancement of alleged UFO pictures. What follows falls exactly
in that scenario.
STORING UFO-RELATED ICONONOGRAPHY
Throughout the last 47 years the market has produced a large
selection of iconography (mainly nice colour artworks and
book/magazine illustrations) about the popular concept of
flying saucers/UFOs and ETs. The visual impact of such a
material is really remarkable under different viewpoints and
surely able to catch everybody's attention. It is worth to be
collected and catalogued in order to have a documentation for
an interesting survey about artists' coverage of the UFO myth
from the late 1940's to nowadays. As a first goal, this amount
of drawings could allow us to establish a comprehensive
UFO-related image library, where pictures may be easily
retrieved and accessed for any kind of possible use;hystorical
researches, illustrations of magazines and books, commercial
exploitment by journalists or publishing houses, production of
multimedia computer products, etc ....
A great problem is to find such a documentation, currently
dispersed in tens or hundreds of group or individual archives
and often unknown to their same owners. A project on a worlwide
basis would be very hard to carry out, as of the hobbly-like
style of ufologists' engagement (an interest from a trade
company is even harder to believe in, without thinking to the
fact that the resulting archive would be virtually inaccessible
to most researchers, due to the related high costs). The best
choice could be the collection of available iconography country
by country, where an individual interested in the matter takes
charge of such a task, involving contacts with UFO buffs/groups
and reproduction of all pictures worth to be collected.
Reproduction and storing of this iconography must be carried
out by computer technologies just in order to keep costs and
times as low as possible. Photographs or colour photocopies
aren't enough flexible cheap media for our prospective users.
It shouldn't be too much difficult to find an enthusiast UFO
buff featuring the necessary skills and basic knowledges for
starting such a project in most countries. He should be sup-
ported by a national group at least, in order to receive enough
support from several people and have access to an already estab-
lished archive. Funding of the project is always a problem,
yet the limited required investment could be well supported by
the coordinator himself, who could later ask for a fee in
relation to any document reproduced for others within the
project.
Required computer equipment may be summarized as follow:
a fast personal computer (or Macintosh) with a quite large
hard disk, a flat bed A4 format colour scanner, a good colour
monitor, one or more efficient software packages devoted to
image scanning (and eventual enhancement) and a simple image
database software able to manage pictures in standar formats
(ie.: TIFF and JPEG).
Something very similar has been already started in 1993 by
this Author, under the name of "UFO IMAGE BANK". Checking
different sources, at the moment mainly from his private and
CISU archives, a first lot in excess of 250 artworks has been
stored. Image mainly refers to artistic scenes portraing UFO
sightings of any kind, from any country; the project has just
started and the amount of catalogued pictures is still limited
(an evaluation of several hundreds of illustrations is a quite
prudent estimation). A personal computer has been used and
image files
sightings of any kind, from any country; the project has just
started and the amount of catalogued pictures is still limited
(an evaluation of several hundreds of illustrations is a quite
prudent estimation). A personal computer has been used and
image files have been stored and managed by a quite good
program named "IMAGE PALS" produced by the software house
U-Lead; it allows view of images under the form of
"thumbnails", each of which carry some information (including
a free text label), so that simple queries may be easily
accomplished anytime (for example: find all pictures originated
from the U.S.A.).
BOOK ARCHIVE
One very simple application of personal computers is the
management of the library of each UFO buff or group. That's
something quite far from any possible real research activity
but always handy in having a direct access to the tens of books
or magazines you have. It is often hard to remember exactly
which titles are available in the personal library or which
are their main themes. A quite simple database manager software
can help a lot in such a task.Yet today's affordable technology
offers further possibilities in managing such an archive
efficiently, adding more information as free text and images.
Many database software are now available on the market at
affordable prices for MS-DOS personal computer and Macintosh;
most of them may handle full-color images as well. They allow
to create a record (the metaphor of the old card of a tradi-
tional file cabinet) with all basic data of the books,including
a special field where a text file related to an abstract or
additional information may be associated to the record itself.
Such a text is generally always visible on the computer monitor
just to have a direct idea about the book;in case of a magazine,
such summary could refer to a short list of the most interesting
articles. If a color scanner is available, the title's cover
may be scanned in and associated to the item's record, so to
recognize it immediately. In such a way you could have a real
great impact in managing your book library.
An example of such application has been carried out by this
same Author; using the database package "SUPERBASE", running
under Microsoft Windows, all UFO books present in his library
have been archived together with text abstracts and cover's
images. Data may be exported in the standard dBase III format
for merging with items of other researchers' libraries (goal:
to know exactly which titles are available within an associa-
tion through its members).
PRESENTATION SHOWS AND SLIDES
A lot of powerful software packages devoted to the production
of sophisticated presentation shows are currently available on
the market; they allow you to merge text (in different styles,
fonts and colors) with graphics and images, as well as even
sound and video clips if your hardware is good enough. This
could be an interesting opportunity to produce a very attractive
presentation, to be played automatically in an endless loop at
conferences or expo events. A first long example, running on a
PC featuring a good color monitor, has been shown at CISU booth
during a series of exibithions held in Italy; it has been able
to catch public's attention efficiently, supplying detailed
information and pictures about the Center itself,UFO phenomenon,
ufology and other topics. Nothing but a divulgation tool, yet
worthwhile of attention also for supplying innovative informa-
tion services to the same UFO buffs through floppy disk
distribution.
Such presentation software may be well exploited to produce
colorful slides, featuring attractive computer-generated
graphics and live images. These slides have a great impact on
the public of conferences, workshops and meetings, making a
speech much more interesting; experience from this Author has
been very positive in several occasions. Slides may be cheaply
shot at the computer screen by a good 35 mm, tripod-mounted
camera or directly produced through suitable equipment at
service bureaus (resulting costs will be slightly higher but
quality is really excellent).
A further use of such material has been found in the production
of a VHS videotape based on a sophisticated show - including
music and voice comment - of the above mentioned slides plus
other still UFO-related images (alleged photographs, pictures
of landing traces, sketches, nice artworks, images of newsclip-
pings, etc ....). Such an operation may be accomplished
directly at your home through a 200 US $ board installed in
your PC, able to convert the video signal to the computer moni-
tor into a TV-compatible one, recordable on any VHS VCR.
Better overall quality may be reached through more professional
equipment and skills. In early 1994 a 15-minute long videotape
has been released by CISU and offered to all Italian UFO buffs,
meeting a remarkable success. An English edition could be pos-
sible if interest will be evident.
MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS
Thanks to the quick development of computer technology and the
establishment of a related popular mass market, cheap and
effective distribution of large quantities of information is
now possible. Many software titles dealing with different
topics (astronomy, anatomy, mechanics, cars, airplanes, wars,
space conquest, etc ...) have been released by some companies,
mostly based in US. In late 1993, a title entirely devoted to
UFOs has been produced by an Arizona company named Software
Publishing Inc. List priced at $ 49.95 (but street prices are
sometimes as low as $ 35.95), "UFO" offers a four-disk set and
a tiny installation-reference manual. The software runs under
Microsoft Windows and after the installation it takes about 7
MegaBytes of disk space. Four main windows are displayed on
the monitor; a world map with red points related to UFO sigh-
ting places, a short list of basic data (date, location, type,
duration, etc ...), a short text description of the displayed
case, a photograph (if any). 500 worlwide cases, yet mainly
from the US, are stored together with about 100 photographs.
It is possible to filter the database by some built-in parame-
ters, including "photo evidence", "death and injury", "abduc-
tion", "environmental impact","animal mutilation","antiquity",
"close encounters of the third kind", so that only entries
matching with such features are displayed. The program is
quite easy to use, but it lacks some more advanced features
and stored data are really few.Scanning resolution of pictures
(many seemingly taken directly from magazines and books) is
low; if you want to increase the original software resolution
of 640 x 480 pixels, display quality drops dramatically.
No UFO researcher has been seemingly involved into the project
and this is quite clear when having a closer look at the
product; the main theme is an extraterrestrial visit to Earth.
A CD-ROM version is also available (street price: $ 39.95),
offering 3,000 stored sightings and a higher number of pictures.
A non-commercial multimedia product like "UFO" will be released
by Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici at the time when you read
this article. Available on floppy disk (limited edition) or
CD-ROM, it delivers a professionally developed software running
under Microsoft Windows, featuring a very attractive efficient
user interface especially designed for such a task. Three main
catalogs of UFO sightings are made available through the
product: ITACAT (close encounters),ivers a professionally developed software running
under Microsoft Windows, featuring a very attractive efficient
user interface especially designed for such a task. Three main
catalogs of UFO sightings are made available through the
product: ITACAT (close encounters),TRACAT(landing trace cases)
and PHOTOCAT (photo cases).Each of them comes with an extensive
set of highly defined pictures and sketches, besides all the
main data and full abstracts with comments for most events.
More, a general catalogue of Italian sightings (about 10,000)
is included in the disk together with suitable software for
browsing and queries. A "bonus" is included as well; a wide
selection of nice colorful photo-quality artworks devoted to
UFOs from different international sources. Visual impact of
such pictures is great; it may offers a first appreciation of
artists' coverage about the theme of "flying saucers"throug-
hout the years.
Something similar in concept, yet limited to text, has been
produced in Australia in 1992. "UFO Research in Australia and
New Zealand" has been a significant interesting attempt of a
"digital book" where information are available directly
through a computer screen, under the form of 804 different
"pages" you can scroll at your will. Cases start from folklore
to modern times, with chapters devoted to special matters.
The product comes as a floppy disk with compressed files
(about 600 Kbytes when decompressed) and a 12 page booklet
featuring color photographs and black & white drawings.
Strangely, such an iconography isn't available on computer;
several shareware or public domain image file viewers could
have been used for such a task and easily integrated within
the package. Even though "UFO Research in Australia and New
Zealand" suffers for a poor management program and an old style
user-interface, as well as a not-cheap cost, it is a very first
interesting example of distributing information by a flexible
and handy medium. Hopefully other works like that will follow
in the future.
PHOTOCAT
Thousands of pictures of alleged UFO phenomena have been offe-
red to the general public and UFO buffs as a proof of the
physical reality of what have been for a long time called
"flying saucer". Photographs emerged in the early days of the
UFO era, in the United States of July 1947, producing a lot of
debate at once. Faking a picture, especially in a situation
where more blurred details in the image oddly mean more mystery,
has been a quite simple art. It was a good way to foul friends
or journalists, as well as an interesting business for those
"skilled" guys who have been selling hoaxed UFO pictures to
newspapers or magazines or gullible guys eager to see a "real
spaceship".
Most UFO researchers consider photographic evidence nothing
but a very suspicious aspect of UFO related stories, something
like a side-effect of the deeply rooted myth associated to them.
Pictures are too easy to be faked to be considered a valuable
"proof". All of us have experienced terrible situations, where
pictures have been declared "genuine" and "really portraiting
a puzzling unknown object" and later found more or less complex
hoaxes. Some UFO buffs tried to defend clearly faked pictures
just in order to have something concrete in their hands able
to demonstrate the physical reality of "flying saucer", so to
show that they were not nuts. This attitude has been common
throughout the whole history of the UFO movement (suffice to
think to the highly controversial Gulf Breeze saga), involving
also other individuals. The famous Italian case of Mr. Giam-
piero Monguzzi (a man willing to become a journalist who
presented a series of astonishing photos portraing a classic
domed saucer landed on a mountain landscape, with a strange
astronaut-like figure next to it) is a clear example; the
photographer confessed the hoax to a magazine, also showing
the original models, yet somebody argued he had been forced to
deny the reality of his encounter with an "alien spacecraft".
Many contactees, since the pioneer G.Adamski, showed several
photos as "proof" of their wonderful experience with outer
space beings; visual evidence has always been one of the most
convincing easy-to-be-made tools to make people believed about
the reality of their contacts. Unfortunately, nearly all of
the pictures supplied by these folkloristic people have turned
into hoaxes or look highly suspicious. Other people and journa-
lists have been responsible for photographic tricks produced in
order to get publicity, sell the photos or get a "scoop"useful
to increase newspapers or magazines run.
As far as this author knows no project devoted to a comprehen-
sive collection of photographic evidence cases has never been
accomplished, even on national scale. Something seems to have
changed during the very last two years, but no real work has
been produced yet. It is highly recommended to national UFO
associations or active researchers to start a well-organized
project aimed to the comprehensive collection of the valuable
video-photographic evidence of their own country, possibly
making use of computer technology. International catalogues 7
or books devoted to alleged UFO pictures 8 -9 have been
produced in the past yet they have been works far from being
complete and, anyway, never updated. Thousands of pictures
should be available all around the world. Archiving of such
evidence would be very interesting for two reasons at least:
a visual collection of directly UFO-related imagery
an in-depth analisys of the features of such documents, the
"message" behind them and the reciprocal influence with the
UFO myth.
In 1991 this Author started a new project within the Centro
Italiano Studi Ufologici (Italian Center for UFO Studies),
country's largest UFO association, fully devoted to the
collection of all Italian photo and video material portraiting
alleged unusual aerial phenomena. All available documents were
randomly distributed among private archives, magazines,
newsclippings and often still in the hands of the authors them-
selves. Besides collecting such a material, the problem about
how to manage such a mass of documents emerged. Main goal of
the project was and still is the establishment of a compre-
hensive catalogue of photos/video including their descriptive
data; this is a very first step of a more ambitious work about
an in-depth survey of the collected evidence under different
points of view (image patterns, "mythological" patterns,
computer image analyses, comparison between faked pictures and
"genuine" ones, etc ....). To carry out project's first goal
the use of a computer technology has been taken into conside-
ration in order to reduce times and allow a more flexible
access and distribution of available data.
First of all, a study has been carried out about what kind of
information had to be taken into consideration.Only basic data
and a few comments have been recognized as important informa-
tion for matching the project's goals. No coding has been used.
A real catalogue including abstracts of each case and printing
of one or more pictures could be possible in a not too far
future, maybe under the form of a real book. As a second step
there has been an evaluation of hardware and software suitable
to the features of the project and prospective users' computer
availability. Final choice involved the per could be possible in a not too far
future, maybe under the form of a real book. As a second step
there has been an evaluation of hardware and software suitable
to the features of the project and prospective users' computer
availability. Final choice involved the personal computer with
a minimum configuration to support graphics and a database
package offering both compatibility with industry-standard
dBase III file format and capacity of displaying images.
Ease of use of the application software was a necessary feature
as well; most UFO buffs have few or very limited knowledges
about how using a computer. This lead the choice to "SUPERBASE
IV" a database manager running under Microsoft Windows, power-
ful and with a good user interface.
All images have been acquired via a color scanner at quite low
resolutions (ranging from 75 to 150 dots per inch), so to
match the project's goal to be a quick reference catalogue and
keep memory usage within manageable limits. All of them have
been acquired in 256 gray levels and their dynamic range has
been later optimized in order to get an excellent display
quality. Each image has been stored in TIFF format, labeled
with a ordering number and its reference included in the data-
base on the related case record.
At time of this writing about 500 cases have been filed in the
database and near the same number of images has been acquired.
About 70% of the cases has one image at least, even though
sometimes coming from low-quality sources as magazines or news-
papers. It is expected to increase such a figure to 75-80% at
most when the collection project will be over: it is practi-
cally impossible to have access to some original sources,
while others don't carry the related pictures at all.
The amassed photographic evidence now counts for about 65
Megabytes of TIFF images, also available in a highly compressed
JPEG format.
Besides collecting pictures of alleged UFO sightings, PHOTOCAT
features a sub-catalogue where fakes, conventional phenomena
and strange-looking photographic effects produced by camera
(ie.: lens flares) or development defects have been stored as
well. This is an interesting collection of items to be used as
a reference sample against the "real" PHOTOCAT catalogue, in
order to compare the two sets for eventual different patterns.
At first glance, alleged photos and recognized fakes or defects
don't show any evident difference, yet such a matter should be
approached by a suitable quite complex research activity.
PHOTOCAT may well be considered the starting point of future
more interesting research projects, including photo analysis.
Of course such a task requires first generation pictures at
least and high or very high scanning resolutions; this means
that pictures originally stored into the database have to be
scanned again. Suitable image processing software is required,
as well as a quite powerful hardware configuration; what is
even more important is a good knowledge of photographic
parameters/rules and optics. Without experience in such fields,
evaluation and interpretation of results from a computer-based
image analysis would be really limited. It is not enough to
carry out seemingly attractive image enhancements or filtering,
supplying a different, much more "technological" view of the
original picture able to wonder enthusiast people. Computer
aided image processing must be coupled with rigorous interpre-
tation of the results, otherwise the whole work could be
practically valueless. A thorough investigation about a single
photographic case takes a lot of time and money, also due to
the many different information to be collected and evaluated.
Anyway, Italian photo evidence is available to anybody interes-
ted in developing analysis about the best pictures 10 .
PHOTOCAT has already carried out a quite extensive survey
about a two-photo set taken at Battipaglia (Salerno, South
Italy) on April 9, 1992,11, also producing a 20 color slides
collection showing different steps of the analysis, together
with related pictures and detailed comments. Results pointed
out several doubts about the reliability of the sighting's
tale and the real features of the portraited object; final
conclusions, also supported by indipendent analysis carried
out by American researcher Jeff Sainio, refer to the possibi-
lity of a model shot next to the camera. This may be well
defined the very first in-depth analysis of an alleged UFO
picture carried out in Italy by local researchers.
This author highly recommend international researchers the
start up of the comprehensive collection of their country's
alleged UFO photographs and videos. That's a valuable sample
of UFO hystory which features a lot of now neglected informa-
tion, as well as an exceptional gallery of visual wonders.
Preservation of such an evidence, beyond its possible real
value as "proof" of an original objective phenomenon, is a
real must for any study group or single researcher 12 .
ARCHIVING NEWSCLIPPINGS
Even though newsclippings are one of the lowest quality
information source we have, undeniably they are a large
majority of available documentation about the UFO phenomenon.
Their importance doesn't come much from the kind of data they
bring to us, as everybody know that information quality of
press sources is very far from being trustable nearly all the
times . Newsclippings are a real evidence of the media coverage
about the matter along the years and a direct clue of what
this can have produced over the people. The process of informa-
tion about UFOs in the press might be a quite interesting topic
to study; some attempts have been already made in the past
years by some researchers.
Yet we are referring to newsclippings about UFO sighting
reports, not to general comments about UFOs as a whole.
Hundreds of thousands of newsclippings of such a kind are now
stored in the dusty archives of international UFO buffs.
A part of them has already gone lost, another one will go soon
due to environment and storing conditions, as well as to normal
aging. How to protect this real estate ? Think how many buffs
may be scared in thinking to loose their own beloved collection
of newsclippings !
Today's computer technology (ie. affordable PCs) may help us
in managing and protecting this huge amount of information.
Of course we don't refer to custom applications for document
archiving, even though some quite cheap software products have
been presented in the PC market. We are spare time "researchers",
so we generally need cheap and easy-to-learn solutions.
The main goal is to digitize actual paper newsclippings and to
store them on magnetic or optical media (rewritable optical
disk drivers are becomig more and more cheaper. Nowadays we
have about a 5.00 US $/Megabyte cost, really a good figure),
allowing the user to have some sort of management control over
them.
This means, for example, the definition of a very simple short
record for each (group of) newsclippings, so that later retri-
eval and query operations could be quicker. Let's suppose to
have a newspaper article dealing with a presumed UFO sighting.
We could put it inside a database record together with basic
information like :
Newspaper Name (also using a coding in order to save typing
time)
Newspaper Date
Article Title
Subject (sighting report; general comment about UFOs;
miscellania; etc ....)
Comment (eg. report classification; warning about investiga-
tions; etc ...)
Code (of eventual case(s) linked to the newsclippinping
time)
Newspaper Date
Article Title
Subject (sighting report; general comment about UFOs;
miscellania; etc ....)
Comment (eg. report classification; warning about investiga-
tions; etc ...)
Code (of eventual case(s) linked to the newsclipping and
currently stored in another database or catalogue)
In such a way any researcher could have an easy access to a
really huge documentation in short times and through low
charges. More complex record layouts could be created in order
to match a larger set of requirements for different applica-
tions 13 , but even a very simple one could be useful.
Think to those private projects aimed at the complete collec-
tion of the UFO-related newsclippings published yearly in a
whole country (like the C.I.S.U. subscription to a national
newsclipping service or the same action made by the French
researcher Gilles Durand). To manage all that huge amount of
paper in a really efficient way isn't an easy task; even the
simple handling of each document will take a lot of time when
compared to what you could get from an electronic management.
The main problem to be thouroughly discussed is just the
structure of the database; should the record refer to a single
case (maybe having multiple sources) when actually related to
a UFO sighting or to one single source ? The perspective of a
huge database counting as many entries as the number of avai-
lable newsclippings isn't much appealing at all.
Even much though what we are saying may appear too far in the
future, there is already an actual possibility to digitize all
the newsclippings from those collections and associate them to
a descriptive record. Later searches, for example to locate
all clippings about close encounters or alleged UFO photographs,
could take place in seconds and results (including the digi-
tized newsclippings printout) could be reproduced on paper.
Thanks to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology
newclipping contents could be even changed into real text able
to be used directly by computer programs and possibly associa-
ted to the same database record for immediate viewing into a
separate window and easier reading.
Some remarks about the management of this "electronic"
newsclippings.
They may be scanned even by very low cost black-white hand-
held scanners (available for less than 150 US $). These handy
devices may read originals up to 4.5" (11.5 centimeters) or
so in width; lenght may be beyond 20 cms, according to computer
free memory. Generally they connect the computer via a supplied
special board, which reduced size may well fits the expansion
slots of many laptop and portable computers (think to the possi-
bility to scan-in newsclippings from the old collections of
libraries, where photocopying isn't allowed !). Reading these
documents at 100 dots per inch (dpi) is generally enough.
Software bundled with the scanner provides some basic graphic
functions (including pixel correction) and storing of the
image in different file formats, like PCX and TIFF. The latter
is nearly a standard widely supported by most graphic packages.
Flatbed scanners in A4 size may also work very fine for such
a task, but a better flexibility (a full A4 size may be easily
and quickly scanned in) is counterbalanced by a higher price,
generally over 800 US $ .
Newsclippings usually feature text only, so they can be read
in black/white (1 bit per pixel). The related files are very
small in size and they can be compressed by special programs
(such as the popular PKZIP) to use even lower space. This means
that tens of medium-size newsclippings could be recorded into
a single floppy disk, enabling a safe and cheap storage,besides
a very handy way to exchange documentation among researchers.
If necessary, newsclippings with halftoned pictures could be
read in gray shades in order to get a good quality for the
pictures themselves. More memory, that is space on the disk,
will be necessary, as the images will be stored by more bits
per pixel.
When verbatim transcription of a newsclipping contents is
required, Optical Character Recognition technology (OCR) may
help us. Powerful programs with error probability of around 0,
1% are available on the market at affordable prices. It is
enough to scan in the newsclipping and then load the resulting
image within the OCR software: in seconds, the newsclipping
will be turned into a plain text file which can be used by any
word processor program. That could be of interest not only in
relation to the production of books or magazine; for example,
imagine the possibility to do a quick semantic analysis of
articles devoted to UFO sightings during a wave.
Minimal requirements for newsclipping archiving are really
affordable to anybody; a AT or 386 personal computer with 2
MB RAM, 40 MBytes hard disk (higher capacity recommended), a
black/white or gray shade hand-held or flatbed scanner and
related scanning software. To run a graphical database package
able to manage images amd import/export data in dBase III
format (like SUPERBASE 4, PARADOX for Windows, etc ...) a more
powerful machine is necessary, in order to run efficiently
Microsoft Windows.
MULTIMEDIA CATALOGS
Special catalogues of UFO events, such as ITACAT (Italian
Catalogue of Italian close encounters) and TRACAT (Italian
Catalogue of trace cases), take a lot of physical space as
paper documents and related iconography. Handling of such a
huge mass of information is far from being easy and efficient.
More, data exchange among researchers is always difficult,
time-consuming and costly. Nowadays computer technologies may
offer interesting solutions through an affordable investment.
As told about PHOTOCAT, some database programs may handle
different kind of information: data, text, images, graphics
and even sound and video. That is just the same kind of stuff
researchers have to manage in their nuts and bolts archives.
The idea is to make all of this documentation directly
available on a computer screen, where the user may decide what
to see. Imagine to have a card (called "record" in computer
jargon) on the monitor; all main data about a given case are
displayed, including original sources.More,you have references
about different documents you have linked to that case;
newsclippings, witness' sketches of the reported phenomenon,
an abstract of the report, photographs of the sighting
environment or possible ground traces, etc ...To display these
information on the screen is very simple: it is enough to point
the mouse cursor on a suitable control button and click.
You may imagine the noteworthy advantages coming from this
computer application: to have an on-line comprehensive documen-
tation of each stored case on a cheap support, able to deliver
great flexibility in data management.
Of course a (color) scanner is a must-to-have piece of hardware
just to scan all available iconography (including newsclippings)
to be later linked with cases. Other side benefits are preserva-
tion and easy duplication of the amassed documentation, which
computer version may be used also for other projects (see
CD-ROM multimedia applications, elsewhere in this same article).
Two examples of this innovative catalogs have been developed
by this Author throughout the last three years: ITACAT and
TRACAT multimedia catalogs are now available on personal
computer platform also in English version. Together, they offer
more than 750 cases with a quantity of images (photos, skecthes,
newsclippings, etc ....) in excess of 650.
MISCELLANEOUS years: ITACAT and
TRACAT multimedia catalogs are now available on personal
computer platform also in English version. Together, they offer
more than 750 cases with a quantity of images (photos, skecthes,
newsclippings, etc ....) in excess of 650.
MISCELLANEOUS
Several Bulletin Board Systems (B.B.S.) all around the world
now offer a wide selection of information about UFOs and
related matters. First attempts in the '80s were the US-based
CUFON (Computer UFO Network) and the UFO BBS managed by this
same Author. Both are now defuncted. By sure the most important
BBS devoted to this arguments is now the MUFONET BBS, an
official service of MUFON, which has a few tens of linked
Systems all over the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
It hosts a huge quantity of information, generally text files
and images about different UFO-related topics (ie: abductions,
Area 51, cattle mutilations, Roswell, historical sightings,
MJ-12, US sightings, crop circles, etc ....). The message
section is a handy way to exchange letters and communications
of any kind among buffs, cheaply and quickly. This allows
anyone to be updated about the latest sightings or news in
ufology. MUFONET BBS reached an agreement with the Italian
group C.I.S.U. in order to hold the whole mass of computer
files (mainly sighting catalogs including ITACAT, TRACAT and
PHOTOCAT, as well as a large selection of UFO-related images)
produced by its own off-line Computer UFO Network. Several
tens of Megabytes of information are now available to all US
and international researchers having access to any of the
systems linked with the MUFONET BBS. C.I.S.U. has its own BBS
devoted to ufology (as well as a section on the Teletext-like
service Videotel), based in Rome. As far as you know, this is
the only Systems of such a kind currently active in Europe.
BBS often offer text files related to old or not well known
magazines and newsletters. Typing manually such texts into a
word processor would take too much time. Modern OCR (Optical
Character Recognition) technology helps dramatically the
operators of such systems. As previoulsy mentioned in relation
to newsclippings, each page of text may be scanned in black
and white and then automatically converted into plain text
with an accuracy now next to 99,9%: the whole process for a
single page (including a manual revision in search for possible
mistakes) takes less than one minute. It would be interesting
to think to such a technology also as a tool to preserve old
documents and newsletters, making the resulting text files
available to anybody at affordable costs.
A CONCLUSION ....
... may refers to a future scenery, when computer technologies
will be so popular, easy to use and cheap to be virtually
everywhere and affordable for everybody. Also UFO buffs will
take advantage of such a situation as regards data exchange
and management. Now, only a part of them have direct or indirect
access even to a personal computer and they still have several
difficulties in managing their archives. Maybe a dusty file is
much more fascinating than a cold piece of hardware filled in
with chips and wires; probably that's true, but progress goes
on quickly and all of us need new more efficient tools to
devoted to UFO research. Ten years ago, most of the things
reported in this article looked still somewhere in a distant
future. now they aren't. In ten years expect a new "Computer
applications in UFO Research - An update".
December 1993
1993 Maurizio Verga
1 Writing of documents by suitable computer programs.
2 Creating the complete page layout of a complex project
such as a brochure, magazine or book.
3 Verga M. (1986) "Computer e UFO" UFO - Rivista di
Informazione Ufologica n° 2, 10-16
4 Verga M. (1990) "Computer technology: a new
breakthrough in UFO research"
The Computer UFO Newsletter Vol. 2, n° 2, 5-9,
also in "Proceedings of First European Congress of
Anomalous Aerial Phenomena: Physical and Psychosocial
aspects", 185-190
5 Vallée J. (1987) "Computers in Ufology" in "UFOs
1947-1987", Fortean Tomes, London
6 A separate paper will be later devoted to such a
complex topic. This Author and Centro Italiano Studi
Ufologici (casella postale 82, 10100 Torino, ITALY)
has started some preliminary applications in such a
field. Results of in-depth analyses of some Italian
alleged UFO photographs have been quite interesting
under different viewpoints, arising several comments
about previous works and the "myth" surrounding
computer image enhancement technology as applied to
UFO research.
7 Delair J.B., Cox E. & Twine R. (1975-1978)
"A provisional catalogue of UFO photographs"
UFO REGISTER Vol. 6, n° 2 + Vol. 7 n° 2 + Vol. 8 n° 2
8 Stevens W. & Roberts A. (1985-86)
"UFO Photographs around the World" Vol. 1 &Vol. 2,
UFO Photo Archives
9 Fusco S. & De Turris S. (1975) "Obbiettivo sugli UFO -
Fotostoria dei dischi volanti", Edizioni Mediterranee,
Italy
10 International groups or researchers interested in
knowing more about PHOTOCAT and exchanging photographs
or videos may write to this author: Maurizio Verga,
via Matteotti 85, 22072 Cermenate (Co), ITALY.
Please state, if available, a fax number.
11 A metal-made looking object was seen to fly slowly
over some buldings just in front of the witness' house
(the mother of him stated to have seen the object
before the son). The young man took two pictures,
eight seconds one from the other, by an old Russian
camera he had on a table. Then the object took off
vertically at high speed.
12 This author is available to anybody interested in such
a project for consulting or delivering of suitable
information/material.
13 Digitized newsclippings could be used within databases
devoted to special kinds of cases, as a documentation
support. For example, you may have a computer-based
catalogue of close encounter events, where each case
is linked with other kind of visual documents: photos,
skecthes and newsclippings may be displayed on the
screen next the record data. An example is described
in the article in relation to Italian projects ITACAT
and TRACAT. -to-have piece of hardware
just to scan all available iconography (including newsclippings)
to be later linked with cases. Other side benefits are preserva-
tion and easy duplication of the amassed documentation, which
computer version may be