Mt Rushmore scanning 'contract' award

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dirdim
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Mt Rushmore scanning 'contract' award

Post by dirdim »

This is a pretty interesting development:

Scots win Mt Rushmore 3D deal

Published Date: 02 July 2009
By Christopher Mackie


Mount Rushmore will become the first of ten World Heritage Sites to be rendered in 3D by a team from Historic Scotland, after the conservation body struck a deal to survey the US monument.

Using laser technology, the team, which includes experts from Glasgow Art School, will provide a visual record of the site in South Dakota as part of a heritage collection that will become known as the Scottish Ten.

It will include 3D models of Scotland's own five World Heritage Sites – the Antonine Wall, New Lanark, Neolithic Orkney, St Kilda, and the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh – as well as four further international monuments yet to be confirmed.

Speaking ahead of a trip to Mount Rushmore to sign the survey agreement, culture minister Michael Russell said: "Scotland has great expertise and a wealth of experience in preserving, understanding and researching its historic environment.

"We have embraced 3D scanning to increase our awareness of heritage and are now able to share our knowledge in digital documentation with countries and organisations on a world stage."

The Scottish Ten project, which will begin in September and is expected to last five years, is part of a larger effort by CyArk, a US non-profit organisation, to digitally capture 500 of the world's most significant heritage sites.

The funding for the Rushmore survey, which is being arranged urgently because of concerns over the deterioration of the sculpture's granite, has been agreed on a partnership basis between CyArk, Historic Scotland and the US National Park Service.

It is understood Historic Scotland will cover its own costs from within its existing budget and provide training on survey techniques to experts based in the United States.

Source: http://news.scotsman.com/world/Scots-wi ... 5421241.jp

Anyone have any other information about this?
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Re: Mt Rushmore scanning 'contract' award

Post by Matt Young »

Thats going to be a really interesting project to work on!

The whole site covers about 1200 acres if I remember correctly. I cant wait to see the rendered models when its done.

Good luck to all those who will be involved with the project.

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Re: Mt Rushmore scanning 'contract' award

Post by Sean Varney »

how long to you think it will take them?

good work getting the contract dos sound grate fun
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Re: Mt Rushmore scanning 'contract' award

Post by Justin Barton »

Hello everyone!
Glad to see there's such positive comments on this project. CyArk, who has partnered with the National Park Service and Historic Scotland, is quite excited about this. I'm personally hoping to be the staff member who gets to go on the field work, but that is not yet decided. We are estimating about 2 weeks for completion of the field work, which will include terrestrial scanning of the sculpture and various park buildings. Possibly some close-range of artifacts and aerial lidar of the landscape, but the kinks are still being worked out. You can read more on our official CyArk blog about it here:

http://archive.cyark.org/mt-rushmore-se ... nd-10-blog


We hope this is the continued evolution of our growing partnerships with both the NPS and Historic Scotland!
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Re: Mt Rushmore scanning 'contract' award

Post by TimBeach »

From Spar Point....

Scanning of Mount Rushmore -- Good for Many

By Lieca N. Hohner, Chief Editor

On July 3, 2009, as part of the kick-off to celebrate the Fourth of July at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, laser scanning made a bang when CyArk’s Ben Kacyra joined Scottish Culture Minister Michael Russell and Superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial Gerard A. Baker in officiating the signing for a state-of-the-art preservation effort of the renowned monument in South Dakota.

Full Article here....

http://www.sparllc.rsvp1.com/
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Re: Mt Rushmore scanning 'contract' award

Post by dirdim »

This story has now made the national spotlight here in the U.S. with coverage this morning in the "USA Today" national newspaper.

Of course it is good for all of us when our technology for 3D imaging reaches the masses in a positive manner, such as this.

But what folks seem to be questioning is why a group from outside the U.S. is performing this work on such a national icon? How do others feel about this? Does anyone know how these arrangements were made?

Here is a link to the story:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... more_N.htm
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Re: Mt Rushmore scanning 'contract' award

Post by Justin Barton »

Hello Michael and other readers,

It is understandable that questions have arisen about how a Scotish (or more generally, a non-American) team came to be involved in documenting an American icon. As some of you familiar with CyArk will know, we strive to establish International partnerships as we see international cooperation as the best tool to save the world's heritage. We see the collaboration between ourselves, the American National Park Service (NPS), and Historic Scotland (HS), as a step forward in international friendships, collaboration, and efforts to save sites, and in this case, to help aide work at Mt Rushmore.

For more specifics, the Mt Rushmore National Memorial staff contacted us late last year. They had many questions regarding Digital Preservation, 3D laser scanning, and site monitoring. We met last winter and had a longer discussion about specific park needs, such as the monitoring of the granite rock and the security of the monument and the park as a whole.

Meanwhile, in April CyArk was a proud attendee of the Digital Documentation Conference held by Glasgow's School of Art and Historic Scotland. While there, CyArk was spotlighted and we introduced our newest initiative, the CyArk 500 Challenge (which our forum Admin Phil Marsh has advocated and even created a whole section in the community forum for). Michael Russell, the Scottish Minister for Culture, External Affairs, and the Constitution, took note of our endeavour and was eager to help. He met with Ben Kacyra, our founder, and he enthusiastically committed Scotland's enrollment in the 500. He obligated HS to provide Digital Preservation work and material for the 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Scotland as well as matching it with 5 more international sites. We have dubbed it the "Scotland 10". As we had already been in preliminary communication with Mt Rushmore regarding completion of a large-scale documentation of the site, we proposed it as the first of the international "Scotland 10" sites. The Minister and his staff were eager to to build an international collaboration not only between two nations, but between two Heritage Sites authorities. The NPS, too, was most happy with the opportunity to create a new international partnership while also having the work generously contributed by HS.

It is an international project that will benefit all, from those involved to the general public. The 500's goal is international cooperation, HS has made a great step in that direction by recognizing not only their heritage's importance, but other international sites of importance.

On a final note, I would like to add that the we will also be involving local/domestic partners. The scanning of Mt Rushmore's heads is the focus of all the newspaper articles because they find it 'flashy', but in reality, there will be considerably more work done including work on museum artifacts, historic buildings within the National Park, and terrain surveys for other areas of the park.

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