I wonder if it is really possible to scan all the bits and have software auto assemble at least some of the bits. I'm not sure how far you could get, and if scanning that many tiny fragments would even work.
Pretty optimistic it would. As a matter of fact, I find it hard to believe they're doing it by hand.
I can imagine how this is done with the standard jigsaw puzzles with four corners on each piece, kind of like hashing the edges such that female and male versions of the edge have hashes that can be related. But pieces that can be any shape at all... I'm not sure.