CyArk and Google team up for virtual reality tours of remote World Heritage sites
POSTED 30 Apr 2018 . BY Tom Anstey
In the VR experiences, visitors can virtually walk down corridors, seeing examples of damage done by past incidents
CyArk – the non-profit foundation dedicated to digitally capturing and preserving cultural heritage sites around the world – has teamed with Google's Arts and Culture project to allow people to explore remote world heritage sites in virtual reality.
Founded in 2003, the non-profit organisation uses cutting-edge technologies to create detailed 3D representations of significant cultural heritage sites before they’re damaged or destroyed by natural disasters, conflicts or the passage of time.
To create the representations that help preserve these sites for the future, CyArk uses an advanced system of laser scanners to mark millions of points that create an almost perfect 3D data set, which can then be used to create a solid 3D model.
Teaming with Google, CyArk has made its data library broadly accessible to the public, using the new Open Heritage site to distribute data on 27 important historical sites.
In the VR experiences, visitors can virtually walk down corridors, seeing examples of damage done by past incidents. Each experience is narrated, with additional videos available for the scanning conservation process. Included among the opening selections are the Bagan temples in Myanmar, the city of Ayutthaya in Thailand, and cliff-side cities in Mesa Verde.
"CyArk has accomplished some incredible things in the 15 years since it was started, capturing data on hundreds of sites on all seven continents, empowering local stakeholders with better information to make decisions about the sites they manage in order to safeguard them for future generations, and now providing access to these incredible sites to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection," said John Ristevski, CEO of CyArk.
"These recent projects start to deliver on the full promise that Ben and Barbara Kacyra envisaged when they founded CyArk 15 years ago and with the launch of our Open Heritage initiative we now get to unlock the potential of this data fully by putting it into the hands of others.
"There is an incredible power in sharing this information with a broad community and we can’t wait to see what they do with it."
For more on CyArk, Attractions Management spoke to vice president Elizabeth Lee in its Q2 2015 edition. To read online for free, click here.
CyArk uses an advanced system of laser scanners to mark millions of points that create an almost perfect 3D data set
CyArk has mapped hundreds of sites around the world
CyArk uses multiple technologies to record heritage sites
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CyArk and Google team up for virtual reality tours of remote World Heritage sites
POSTED 30 Apr 2018 . BY Tom Anstey
In the VR experiences, visitors can virtually walk down corridors, seeing examples of damage done by past incidents
CyArk – the non-profit foundation dedicated to digitally capturing and preserving cultural heritage sites around the world – has teamed with Google's Arts and Culture project to allow people to explore remote world heritage sites in virtual reality.
Founded in 2003, the non-profit organisation uses cutting-edge technologies to create detailed 3D representations of significant cultural heritage sites before they’re damaged or destroyed by natural disasters, conflicts or the passage of time.
To create the representations that help preserve these sites for the future, CyArk uses an advanced system of laser scanners to mark millions of points that create an almost perfect 3D data set, which can then be used to create a solid 3D model.
Teaming with Google, CyArk has made its data library broadly accessible to the public, using the new Open Heritage site to distribute data on 27 important historical sites.
In the VR experiences, visitors can virtually walk down corridors, seeing examples of damage done by past incidents. Each experience is narrated, with additional videos available for the scanning conservation process. Included among the opening selections are the Bagan temples in Myanmar, the city of Ayutthaya in Thailand, and cliff-side cities in Mesa Verde.
"CyArk has accomplished some incredible things in the 15 years since it was started, capturing data on hundreds of sites on all seven continents, empowering local stakeholders with better information to make decisions about the sites they manage in order to safeguard them for future generations, and now providing access to these incredible sites to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection," said John Ristevski, CEO of CyArk.
"These recent projects start to deliver on the full promise that Ben and Barbara Kacyra envisaged when they founded CyArk 15 years ago and with the launch of our Open Heritage initiative we now get to unlock the potential of this data fully by putting it into the hands of others.
"There is an incredible power in sharing this information with a broad community and we can’t wait to see what they do with it."
For more on CyArk, Attractions Management spoke to vice president Elizabeth Lee in its Q2 2015 edition. To read online for free, click here.
CyArk uses an advanced system of laser scanners to mark millions of points that create an almost perfect 3D data set
CyArk has mapped hundreds of sites around the world
CyArk uses multiple technologies to record heritage sites
RELATED STORIES
Project ANQA seeks support to document Middle East heritage sites under threat from ISIS POSTED 03 Nov 2015. BY Tom Anstey Heritage preservation specialists CyArk and the International Council on Monuments and
Sites (ICOMOS) are seeking government and private assistance for the emergency
documentation of some of the Middle East’s most endangered cultural heritage sites.
Crowdsourced heritage preservation scheme Project Mosul goes global POSTED 23 Oct 2015. BY Tom Anstey Project Mosul – a heritage preservation and restoration project that initially focused on
the Mosul Museum in Iraq – has been rechristened Rekrei after the team behind the
crowdsourcing scheme took their efforts to a global level.
CyArk summit brings heritage minds together to combat destruction POSTED 22 Oct 2015. BY Tom Anstey Reaching its conclusion yesterday (21 October), the CyArk 500 annual summit has
brought together top names from across the heritage sector to discuss future strategy and
trends in Berlin.
Former UNESCO director calls on governments to prevent heritage desolation by ISIS POSTED 21 Oct 2015. BY Jak Phillips Heritage expert and former director of UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, Francesco
Bandarin, has called on the heritage sector and the governments that support it to
increase efforts to end wilful annihilation of historic sites by the likes of ISIS.
Off the back of the success of the first round of Everyday Heritage Grants in 2022, Historic
England is funding 56 creative projects that honour the heritage of working-class England.
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