MOUNT RUSHMORE -- Mount Rushmore National Memorial is set to get a three-dimensional digital recording, park officials announced Friday.
Laser scans by a partnership will give the National Park Service the ability to develop a digital model for virtual tours of the memorial and its entire park site, memorial superintendent Gerard Baker said.
"We're going to open it up so the citizens of America and the world can see things they've never seen before," Baker said.
CyArk, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that scans historic cultural sites with the cutting-edge laser technology, will conduct the scanning with the cooperation of several local firms and the Scottish Ministry of Culture. The project will start sometime in late September and wrap up in two weeks.
Wyss Associates in Rapid City and the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology are partners in the scanning effort.
The laser scanning technology has being used to scan and digitally record five historic cultural sites in Scotland, and that country will assist with the scanning of five cultural heritage sites worldwide, starting with Mount Rushmore. The site is one of 500 sites CyArk hopes to scan and preserve a digital record. The company has already digitally preserved two dozen sites around the world, including places in Italy, Egypt, Cambodia and Mexico.
The virtual tours of Mount Rushmore and the surrounding grounds could serve as a way for tourists to view the sites in what Scottish Culture Minister Michael Russell called a "Star-Trekkie" way.
"In those circumstances, you can take some pressure off the places themselves," he said.
The scanning project will provide a three-dimensional digital model capable of re-creating sculpted surfaces with an accuracy of less than 1 centimeter. Both ground and air-based radars will scan the grounds.
"We're hoping we can put the monument and the structures here in the context of the overall park," Ben Kacyra of CyArk said.
The completed scanning data also will be stored in the Hall of Records for posterity and help explain the carving project to future civilizations. The electronic model also could provide guidance, in the event of damage to the sculpture, to replicate carved surfaces.
Laser scans by a partnership will give the National Park Service the ability to develop a digital model for virtual tours of the memorial and its entire park site, memorial superintendent Gerard Baker said.
"We're going to open it up so the citizens of America and the world can see things they've never seen before," Baker said.
CyArk, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that scans historic cultural sites with the cutting-edge laser technology, will conduct the scanning with the cooperation of several local firms and the Scottish Ministry of Culture. The project will start sometime in late September and wrap up in two weeks.
Wyss Associates in Rapid City and the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology are partners in the scanning effort.
The laser scanning technology has being used to scan and digitally record five historic cultural sites in Scotland, and that country will assist with the scanning of five cultural heritage sites worldwide, starting with Mount Rushmore. The site is one of 500 sites CyArk hopes to scan and preserve a digital record. The company has already digitally preserved two dozen sites around the world, including places in Italy, Egypt, Cambodia and Mexico.
The virtual tours of Mount Rushmore and the surrounding grounds could serve as a way for tourists to view the sites in what Scottish Culture Minister Michael Russell called a "Star-Trekkie" way.
"In those circumstances, you can take some pressure off the places themselves," he said.
The scanning project will provide a three-dimensional digital model capable of re-creating sculpted surfaces with an accuracy of less than 1 centimeter. Both ground and air-based radars will scan the grounds.
"We're hoping we can put the monument and the structures here in the context of the overall park," Ben Kacyra of CyArk said.
The completed scanning data also will be stored in the Hall of Records for posterity and help explain the carving project to future civilizations. The electronic model also could provide guidance, in the event of damage to the sculpture, to replicate carved surfaces.
