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USC Researcher Cracks 18th Century Code

A USC computer scientist used computer technology to decode the secrets of a centuries-old document.

A team of researchers including USC computer scientist Kevin Knight decoded an encrypted 18th century document to reveal the rituals and politics of a German secret society, researchers announced Tuesday.

The Copiale Cipher is a 75,000 character cryptogram whose meaning has been shrouded in mystery since its discovery at the East Berlin Academy at the end of the Cold War. Knight collaborated with experts at Uppsala University in Sweden to crack the code.

USC Computer Scientist Kevin Knight.
USC Computer Scientist Kevin Knight.

The document contains Greek and Roman characters, as well as abstract characters. Researchers originally isolated the Greek and Roman characters to decode their meaning, only to learn the most familiar characters in the text were null. Researchers compared the document against 80 known languages before realizing it was the abstract characters which held meaning.

Knight, a computer scientist at Viterbi School of Engineering, is an expert at machine translation. Knight developed a software program to decpiher symbols and patterns within the text.

Researchers hypothesized the abstract symbols were approximations of German characters. Testing this hypothesis, the messages within the document began to emerge in German.

This is a groundbreaking decoding, but Knight says he is focused on the practical applications of his work.

"I'm happy that linguistic software can help us crack historical ciphers," Knight told ATVN in a statement Tuesday. "Now I hope that decipherment techniques can help us build better translation software."

Knight is a world expert in machine language translation. The use of artificial intelligence to translate languages aims not only to make modern languages more accessible, but promises to offer insight into ancient languages and animal communication as well.

Knight's research was funded by the National Science Foundation. His ongoing work includes decoding Zodiac letters and Krypton, an encrypted message on display at CIA headquarters.

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