Wessex Archaeology were invited to give a presentation at the aforementioned seminar, to talk about our experiences of using laser-scanning technologies. Starting off with the question why? before moving onto the how? before illustrating points with case studies drawn from recent Wessex Archaeology projects, I aimed to show how laser scanning technologies can be used for a range of heritage applications from recording and analysing the morphology of bones, to recoding sites and buildings, right through to topographic surveys and recording entire landscapes. Without getting too technical, the aim of the presentation was to show other heritage professionals how laser scanning can provide an additional tool in the armoury of the archaeological surveyor, idealy suited to many (but importantly not all!) heritage applications.
Overall, the day was informative and interesting with a number of presentations worthy of special note.
Firstly, Anthony Corns from the Discovery Project spoke about their experiences with high resolution airborne LiDAR in the second session. The folks at the Discovery Project have done some excellant work and the work presented here was no exception. To summarise, they have been using helicopter mounted LiDAR systems rather than fixed-wing systems which allows them to a) fly much slower over the target and b) fly much lower, almost on the ground, so that the actual point desnity of measurements on the ground can be in the hundreds per square metre. To put this into context, the work that I have been doing of late has all been based on the Environment Agency LiDAR datasets, with a typical (gridded) point denisty of one point per square metre so the data the Discovery Programme folks have been working with is orders of magnitude more dense. Not only this, but the tolerances of the data are much improved, particulary in the z-axis. The only downside is, of course, the cost. Hiring the LiDAR system and a helicopter and then getting the whole lot airborne is not cheap (figures quoted were in the tens of Euros for a sqaure kilometer or so) but this has to be put in context: recording at this level of detail using any survey equipment is not going to be cheap, just think how long it would take to capture this many points using dGPS for example! The LiDAR system used is the FLI-MAP 400 from BKS Surveys Ltd (UK) and Fugaro Ltd. (Netherlands) and in addition to the three laser scanners, it also comprises a high resolution camera and video cameras; having three scanners allows the system to better capture vertical surfaces such as walls and even get partially underneath overhanging obstructions such as trees and bridges. Wow. Guess what's on my Christmas list ths year!
Also in the more technical second session was James Brassington from the University of Aberwrystwyh. Speaking more from an earth sciences point of view, it was good to see that the parallel developments being made with respect to laser scanningtechnologies, their uses and potential problems. Special thanks for making the point about the continued need for robust survey control always need making!
Finally in the third and final session, there were two presentations which are making use of the latest mobile and web2.0 technologies to get the public involved.
Tom Pert from RCAHMW talked about the use of mobile tours, e-trails and the like. Of particular interest is the MScape platform from HP Labs in Bristol for building 'mediascapes' (interactive, media rich, location aware tours of places which can be deployed on mobile devices such as PDAs and SmartPhones). More can be found on the MScapers blog here: http://blog.mscapers.com/?p=96.
Siobhan McConnachie from RCAHMS then spoke about plans for opening up the Scottish National archives to allow users to generate their own content. The core data has been available for a while now through the Canmore website (and Canmap, the online GIS) but what is being proposed now will alow users to add their own information, including images, directly into Canmore. Importantly, rather than trying to start from scratch, RCAHMS are leveraging existing web2.0 platforms to deliver the functionality they need: Images are uploaded through Canmore to Flickr using the Flickr API whilst geotagging is accomplished using GoogleMaps. Importantly, this user generated content will not be moderated in any way (other than to ensure there is no bad language, illegal material, etc); users are free to add whatever they want to the system. Of course, it will be clear to see what is part of the national archive and what is user generated content to avoid any confusion as to the legitimacy of informtaion. This move is groundbreaking and promises to change the way in which the public interact with their national archives in Scotland; a similar initiave for England, building on top of the Heritage Gateway for example, which already aggregates content from a range of sources, would be fantastic.
On a purely geeky note, I also got to see See3D's render farm they use to produce output from Blender, their choice of 3D modelling packages.To produce the kinds of high quality visualisations they do, the folks at See3D need considerable processing power and rather than buying off the shelf servers, they have built a 250+ node cluster from consumer grade PC components (and some chipboard). An interestng solution to what can be a very expensive problem.
The event was held at Aberwrytwyth University and was attended by a range of heritage professionals from across the UK and Ireland. It was organised by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales and sponsored by See3D.