what was the process of getting each of the shredded pieces scanned for your program to use. I'm guessing that process could have a write up on it just as much as the solver. there's definitely a personality type that can handle that type of mess

DARPA scanned the shreds. The funny thing is, they didn't want to shred the original paper, so first they photocopied the paper in a high quality color copier, shredded it, and scanned it. And that's where the little yellow dots came from. :D

interesting. now my brain is churning on why would they not want the originals shredded. what does that say about the value they placed on the originals? why would they open a contest up with documents of such perceived value as the content? being DARPA, i'm sure there's a reason though

You might be reading into it too much. I think the originals were just random pieces of different kinds of paper. Graph paper, yellow lined, paper, blank white paper... I don't remember exactly, but I think the copies could be special paper with a colored backside so they would know which way was up really easily for the scanning process.

no it was a deliberate what if meant in jest that probably really could have been kept to myself

Did they scan both sides of the shreds?

and here I thought the library shredder/scanner in Vinge's Rainbows End was just sci-fi loosely based on gene sequencing...

(I mean it is, but seeing this almost real-world implementation is fun!)

Oh wow, I remember hearing about this challenge on Daily Planet when I was still in elementary school. It's super cool seeing a follow up, it brought back a hidden memory.

Super cool demo btw