Heritage goes high-tech
February 1st, 2010 | by ecadman |These images wouldn’t look out of place on the wall of an art gallery but they are actually the fruits of a high-tech heritage project to survey Scotland’s most important sites.
The cutting-edge portraits show 15th-century Rosslyn Chapel, near Edinburgh.
A combined team from Historic Scotland and the digital design studio at Glasgow School of Art spent three days using terrestrial laser scanning and digital photography techniques to capture more than 4.5 billion dimension points.
They used three highly advanced 3D terrestrial laser scanners, each capable of capturing 50,000-plus points a second.
The information not only provides an accurate record of the chapel’s current condition but has also provided critical dimensional information in the ongoing restoration process.
Scotland’s minister for cultural and external affairs, Fiona Hyslop, said: “This leading edge technology will help digitally preserve Scotland’s heritage for generations to come.
“The amount of detail in the digital images of Rosslyn Chapel is truly astonishing. The technology provides a lasting, digital record of the country’s most important buildings. It also offers a new method for researching and conserving Scotland’s built environment.”
Did I already mention that it took them just three days? The same project would have taken a conventional surveyor more than a year.
- Elizabeth Hopkirk
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