I am trying to decipher some of my dad’s belongings, and this art piece is a great example. Usually, his artwork is signed ‘Ũ. Ũ§ŨŨ’ along with the date. However, in this case, the text remains hidden. Over the past three years, I have repeatedly tried to uncover the hidden text by examining it from multiple angles, distances, and under various lighting conditions, but to no avail.
I recorded a video today to illustrate this. Just a quick note: the video starts at 0.6x zoom, and every time you hear me say a number out loud, that is the exact zoom level I’ve reached at that moment.
On the left is a picture I took to show my position (indicated by the red Crocs) relative to the artwork. I drew a blue line on the image and asked the AI to measure the distance between us to provide more context for the video. To help it calculate, I told the AI that each floor tile is 90 square centimeters. As you can see, the AI added several imaginary details to the original picture that I didn’t ask for. However, despite these visual glitches, the overall distance estimation was decent, putting the camera roughly 3 meters away from the art.
I eventually decided to verify the AI’s estimate with a physical measuring tape, which measured exactly 3 meters. Taking into account the approximate 20 cm distance between my face and where I hold the camera, the actual working distance is 2.8 meters.
Additionally, applying that same calculation for the distance from my face, the actual working distance when I approached the painting in the video was approximately 70 cm.
Example to a signature with date (close-up of “Longing For United States (ðī Fatherâs Piece)“):
After I put my request in the AI
* This is our conversation (middle till the end):
Based on the visual reference in the image 1000137193.jpg, here is an estimation of the distance you drew and how to map out the measurements.
Distance Estimation
To calculate the total distance of the blue line from your red socks to the wall, we can use the 90 cm floor tiles as a physical grid.
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Tile Counting: The blue line spans approximately 3.3 to 3.5 tiles in depth from the starting point to the wall.
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From the starting point (your socks) to the first visible horizontal grout line is roughly 0.25 to 0.3 of a tile.
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The line then crosses two full tiles across the middle of the floor (180 cm).
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The final segment, from the last grout line to the wall behind the black tables, is roughly one full tile (90 cm).
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Total Calculation: If we calculate the straight-line depth (roughly 3.3 tiles 90 cm), it equals approximately 297 cm. When accounting for the slight curves and diagonal drift in the line you drew, the actual path length is estimated to be around 3 meters (300 cm).
Adding 30 cm Marks
Because I am an AI text assistant, I cannot directly edit your image file to draw the visual marks. However, because 30 cm is exactly one-third of a 90 cm tile, it is very straightforward to map this out:
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Three Marks Per Tile: Every full 90 cm floor tile will contain exactly three 30 cm segments. If you start a mark on a horizontal grout line, the next two marks will fall inside the tile, and the fourth will land perfectly on the next grout line.
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Accounting for Perspective: Because the photo was taken with a 0.6x wide-angle lens, severe perspective distortion is present. The tiles closest to the bottom appear significantly stretched, while the tiles near the wall appear compressed.
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Visual Spacing: To draw these marks accurately, the 30 cm intervals must be drawn quite far apart at the bottom of the blue line and get progressively closer together as the line approaches the black tables and the wall.
Would you like me to guide you on how to use a basic photo editing tool to accurately plot perspective-corrected marks on this image yourself?
 Edit this image anyway
