DARPA: Shredder Challenge Solved. See images from the winning entry.

Why are they all straight shreds? Bad guys don't know how to go to Staples.com and buy a Diamond shredder? Sure, it's useful to be able to decode those but if you're going to throw $50,000 on the table why not at least ask for something slightly more sophisticated than aligning what are essentially rectangles.<p>I wouldn't be surprised if someone out there makes a cheap consumer grade shredder with some shape more obnoxious than diamonds too...

I'm really interested in seeing the algorithms and implementation behind the solutions.

I supose I can save the money for a new shredder now. Home incinerators for the rescue?

I guess that the use of sensitive documents rules out Mechanical Turk or a game version for the real work, but I'd be interested to see what turkers could do.

I'd be impressed if they could reassemble a shreded CD or DVD.

Burn all your shredding Write with invisible ink (lemon juice, ACME Brand , etc...) Small font, tight spacing.<p>;-)