It's depressing that this is necessary, but it provides a cool way for armchair archaeologists to explore ancient ruins.
This initiative aims to generate ‘‘digital twins’’ of threatened archaeological sites. Thanks to these 3D models, famous archaeological areas will now be accessible to a wide public. If they were to be destroyed, this digitalisation would also keep their memory. It might even make a reconstruction possible.
The technology used is based on “photogrammetry” a system involving an enormous number of photographs processed by algorithms. Photogrammetric algorithms analyze thousands of images taken and exploit the similarities between the pictures to reconstruct a ‘‘point cloud’’; in other words, a 3D version of the archaeological artefact.
https://blog.sketchfab.com/museum-spotlight-iconem
Didn't Microsoft [of all people] have something a few years back that combined lots of pictures from lots of users, to create virtual views of places?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Microsoft were involved or not, but I've used this one from AutoDesk and it's pretty darn good :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.123dapp.com/catch
It wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft had their own system though. The HoloLens couldn't function without at least a rudimentary version.
Rhys Taylor It wasn't that. But that's really interesting!
ReplyDeleteHere in the 'States we don't have much for "ancient" sites. As a youth I visited Fort Ticonderoga which is a stone fortification dating from our French/Indian war. It's based on the classic European five pointed star whereby defenders located at the "points" could train fire onto adjacent walls, a perfect defensive cross fire.
ReplyDeleteEver since then older architecture and ruins have captured my imagination.
Perhaps Mesa Verde (cliff dwellings) would compare for relative age, but we Americans have little to compare to the Old World.
Thanks for the post, Rhys!