3D Scanning Works as High Tech Insurance Policy

Photo Credit: Joe Shearer/The Daily Nonpareil via AP

Iowans have 3D scanned the historic Dark Angel Statue in Council Bluff, IA in an effort to preserve this piece of art. The statue, officially a memorial to the wife of a local Civil War general, is 96 years old and was sculpted by Daniel Chester French, who is better known for another work of his-the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The people of Council Bluffs raised enough money to get the statue scanned so that if any parts break off or if it falls into disrepair, it can be easily replicated with the exact dimensions of the original design. The community is happy with its investment in the preservation of the local landmark and historic work of art.

If only ancient Egyptians had had the technology, we would know what the Sphinx’s nose looked like.

Academics Use 3D Printing to Rebuild Artifacts Destroyed by ISIS

3D print by RapidMade for Decimate Mesh Art

Since ISIS began destroying priceless artifacts in territory it controls, archaeologists and artists around the world have been scrambling to salvage and, or recreate the objects being annihilated.  Recently RapidMade worked on one of these projects:  Ryan Woodring's Decimate Mesh Art Exhibit.

Closer to the tragedy, in a bold and proactive counter offensive, 

“Archaeologists at Oxford and Harvard have launched a high-tech offensive against Isis by creating a full digital record of threatened ancient sites and artefacts in the Middle East by Islamic State.”

Using 3D cameras, the academics  who've partnered with Unesco, plan to collect millions of digital images that will enable them to capture and reconstruct any piece that is destroyed. Their plan involves positioning "hundreds of the internet-enabled 3D cameras around important sites where they will take full photographic records from several different angles before uploading them to an open-source database online.

Given the wide-scale destruction wrought on the area to date, the project team recognizes that it is literally "up against the gun" to save as many antiquities as it can.

For years, museums like the Smithsonian have been creating digital libraries of their collections to catalog, study and share.  But this effort is one of the first geared specifically to safeguard artifacts from defacement or destruction.