Editing Final Report 2011 (section)

==Introduction==
This project, ‘''Code Cracking: Who murdered the Somerton Man?''’ concerns an un-deciphered code linked to a man discovered dead on Somerton Beach in 1948. The inspiration for the project is the chance to shed light on this code’s meaning, taking advantage of technology not available when the case was first investigated. The project has two focuses. A cipher analysis; analysing the link between the code and historic ciphers, and web crawling; mining the internet to acquire data consistent with patterns in the code. 

Along with providing an analysis of cipher links to the code, the project develops two software products: a cipher analysis tool and a web searching application. The flexible designs of these products facilitate wide-ranging applications beyond the scope of this project.

This is the final report for the project. It describes the processes and outcomes of the project and defines the degree of success to which objectives have been met. The report discusses methodology used, the results achieved and provides an evaluation of the outcomes. For completeness, background information, inspiration and designs from previous reports have been included. The report also includes an analysis of the project management strategies employed in managing progress, mitigating risks and auditing results.

===History===
[[Image:Grave.png|thumb|170px|right|West Terrace Cemetery un-named grave]]
====The Case====
On December 1st 1948 a deceased man was found on Somerton Beach. The conclusion from the autopsy was that his death had not been natural and a poison was the likely cause. At the time an identification of the poison could not be made but a review in 1994 determined it was the uncommon Digitalis<ref name=TamamShudWiki>''Tamam Shud Case'', Wikipedia Foundation Inc, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case</ref>.

The man possessed no form of identification. His fingerprints and dental records were not found in any international registries. All the labels had been removed from his clothing and thus could not be traced. Further complicating the investigation was eight different “positive” identifications of the man by members of the public before 1950<ref name=TamamShudWiki>''Tamam Shud Case'', Wikipedia Foundation Inc, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case</ref>.

The man and his origins remain unidentified to this day. He rests in an un-named grave in West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide.

====The Code====

Connected to the unidentified man and the focus of this project is the five-line code in Figure 1. No one has yet extracted meaning from the code despite over 60 years of attempts.

[[Image:The_Code.png|thumb|300px|center|The code found in the back of the Rubaiyat linked to the Somerton Man.]]

<center>'''Figure 1 - The Somerton Man code'''</center>

The code was found as a faint pencil marking in the back of a book containing a collection of Persian poems titled [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubaiyat_of_Omar_Khayyam The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam]. A man in Glenelg found the book after it was tossed into the back seat of his car sometime during the night of November 30, 1948. On the last page of the book the words “Tamám Shud”, meaning ended of finished in Persian, had been removed. A small piece of paper with these words printed on it was found in a concealed pocket in the deceased man’s clothing. Later testing confirmed the piece of paper originated from the book<ref name=TamamShudWiki>''Tamam Shud Case'', Wikipedia Foundation Inc, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case</ref>.

No one has yet determined the meaning of this code and deciphering it provides the basis and inspiration for this project.

===Motivation===
The fact that no one has been able to solve the case in over 60 years raises the question: Why do we think we can do better? The answer lies in technological advances made in this period. By far the biggest and most critical developments for the 2011 project have been the evolution of computers and the introduction of the Internet. 

There exists a possibility that within the vast amounts of data contained in the Internet there is a meaning to the code; it just has not been connected to the case. In order to sort through the data and analyse potential ciphers, the phenomenal processing power of computers will also be vital.

The approach of this project aimed to utilise these advances to approach the code from a new angle.

===Project Objectives===
At the beginning of the project several broad objectives were established. These were:
# Conduct a comprehensive cipher analysis
# Create an ability to custom search the web

The aim of the cipher analysis was to methodically investigate as many ciphers as possible to determine a valid encryption methodology for the code. This process was to contribute to the ongoing cipher examination of the code.

The second objective aimed to create the ability to custom search and analyse the data available on the Internet with greater control and flexibility than the average internet search engine. The motivation for this was the theory that the true meaning of the code already exists within the data on the web and by exhaustively searching for distinct patterns evident in the code it may be possible to directly identify parts of the underlying message. This objective also included the design aim of making the software generic so that many different search patterns would be accepted; providing applications beyond the scope of the Somerton Man investigation.

It should be noted that the project did not set the objective of cracking the code or solving the case. The code has not been solved in over 60 years, so while the project endeavoured to shed light on the meaning behind the code; success of the project was not dependent on the code being cracked or the case being solved.

====Extended Objectives====
Efficient progress during the 2011 project provided an opportunity to extend the original objectives. Both project team members in consultation with the project supervisor established the following additional objectives:

In the cipher analysis component a lot of software was being written for investigating cipher links to the code. Rather than archive this software after each cipher was examined, an objective was set to use it to create a centralised cipher analysis tool that intuitively implemented numerous ciphers.

With the aim of designing web search software with numerous applications a need for a user-friendly interface was identified. This spawned the objective of creating an interactive user-friendly GUI from which to the search mechanism could be run and results presented.

Finally, the goal was set to release these useful software applications to the public by making them available on the project's [[Cipher Cracking 2011|wiki page]].

===Structure of Remainder of Report===
The structure of this report reflects the approach used to conduct the project. Firstly background of the project is given with an overview of the previous studies relevant to the project, software tools, cipher analysis methodology and a conceptual description of a web crawler.

An overview of the strucutral and statistical analysis conducted on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is included as section 3 followed immediately by a summary of the 2011 cipher investigation as section 4. The Cipher GUI project extension component is discussed in section 5.

The next three sections, sections 6, 7 and 8, summarise the pattern matching software, web crawler development and the integration of the two systems. This is followed by the findings of an extensive investigation conducted with the combined pattern matching and web crawling system in section 9.

The report is concluded with a summary of proposed future directions for the 2011 project, project management tools and responsibilities and a discussion of the project outcomes including the project's significance, innovations, strengths and limitations.

A complete list of references is included at the end of this document with links to other resources associated with the 2011 project.