The idea of putting the Shroud disturbing signs of suffering at disposal of blind people rose from a pastoral concern: is it possible to make them personally and directly meet the Shroud without the human word intervention? Father Giuseppe Chicco, the Turin ecclesiastical and consultant of the Apostolic Movement of the Blind, thought it impossible on the face of it.

During the 2000 exposition the Piedmontese Association of the Partially Sighted and people with Retinopathy contacted the Diocesan Committee and proposed to create a life-size front part of the whole figure of the Shroud. The University Department of Computer Science was involved to study the mathematic model and the Scuola di Carità Arti e Mestieri of Turin to create it.

Everything started from the following consideration: just like the different information contents are varied by visual perception, the same must happen as far as the sense of touch is concerned. The computer work therefore developped to create the mathematic model suited to work on all the different information about the cloth in order to transform them in the corresponding relief.

The used filters aimed both at cancelling or at least softening the image noise due to the cloth many ups and downs and at separating the weave from the impressions since only the latter had to be read. Then, the methodology to detect the body imprint relief was applied to control the blood and liquid stains effects.

On the other end, bruises were brought out by a parametrically controlled relief in order to make it remarkable but also differ it from the one of the body structure. As far as the patches were concerned, their form was determined automatically and they were forced to depress in order to give the indication of their presence as part of the Shroud; otherwise, the cloth would present lacks of tissue just like in the two top right and left corners lacking parts where the Shroud is sewed to the Linen of Holland.

The resulting data, collected in an apt for database, were given to the firm DUEL that converted them for the milling machines provided by the firm ZETA TRE.

After having consulted the firm APRI, to which it was proposed a first prototype, the decision was to carry the final relief out realizing it on an alluminium support since this metal is considered to be the most suitable as far as toughness and tactile perception are concerned (fig. 22).

The Shroud for blind people was one of the most interesting realizations of 2000 exposition: this is what both the Exposition Committee and the media declared and the more than 500 blind visitors who readed it along the pilgrimage path toward the Cathedral confirmed.

The relief is now in the Museum of the Shroud at the number 28 of Via San Domenico in Turin. The creation of the Shroud for blind people has a scientific and social value since it is the first three dimensional realization obtained by means of computer tools and whose details coincide exactly with those of the bidimensional image; it perfectly integrates in the broad integration plan for the partially sighted.
For the first time ever, blind people can have the same feelings anyone has facing the Shroud. However, it is also very much appreciated by sighted persons too: touching what they see makes feelings rise.