Israel Antiquities Authority

The first view. When the Egyptian Department of Antiquities discovered the Gaza synagogue mosaic in 1965, the head and hand of David were intact, as shown in this photograph, which documented their find. Although shot at an oblique angle, this photo proved crucial to the Israel Museum’s reconstruction of the mosaic. Specialists from the Hebrew University’s Computer Vision Laboratory first calculated the angle at which this photo was taken. Then, after scanning the photo into their computers, they used a method called “computer warping” to realign the image and determine how it would have looked had it been shot straight on.