Virtual Tour of Mount Rushmore
Laser scanning carried out by a Scots team has allowed people unprecedented
access to Mount Rushmore through a virtual tour.
In 2010 experts from Historic Scotland and The Digital Design Studio at Glasgow
School of Art worked with the National Park Service and not-for-profit organisation
CyArk to get into all the nooks and crannies of the iconic monument of the four
President’s heads.
Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop said:
“I am really thrilled that the work done by the Scottish Ten team is being used in
such a wonderful way.
“The partnerships we have formed to use laser scanning to aid conservation and
maintenance of some of the most incredible historic sites on the planet have huge
potential. The work can be developed to offer virtual tours like this to allow online
visitors to access areas that they could not in reality for safety reasons.
“Mount Rushmore was the first international site that the Scottish Ten project tackled
and I know that it is still regarded as setting the bar really high in the standard of the
work being carried out, the innovation in getting all of the data required and, most
importantly, the partnership working that has now been rolled out to include the
heritage authorities in India and China.
“Since the original scanning was done in 2010 I have seen the footage taken from
the top of the monument and been lucky enough to meet some of the team from
CyArk and the National Park Service. It is great to see that this has been utilised to
enhance the visitor experience at Mount Rushmore.”
The digital portal features multimedia material including an interactive virtual tour of
the Memorial, navigable and measurable 3D “point cloud” models comprised of the
billions of points collected by the laser scanners, and a large collection of historic
photographs.
CyArk founder, Ben Kacyra, said:
“It is an honour for our organization to digitally preserve such an important
monument to the American spirit for generations to come. The CyArk website gives
free access to users across the globe, allowing them to experience Mount Rushmore
alongside other culturally significant world heritage sites.”
The new digital portal is available from the CyArk website for online visitors to
access 3D models created through the laser scanning process.
http://archive.cyark.org/mount-rushmore-national-memorial-intro .
The Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation, a partnership between
Historic Scotland and the Glasgow School of Art’s Digital Design Studio, was created
by the Scottish Government to carry out the Scottish Ten project. This ambitious 5year project will digitally record the five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Scotland
and five international sites.
Doug Pritchard, Head of Visualisation at the GSA’s Digital Design Studio, said:
“The documentation of the Mount Rushmore National Monument was a tremendous
privilege, in particular working with the local survey organisations, Leica
Geosystems, the US Parks Ropes Team and CyArk.
“Our team was well-prepared for the physical challenge, but what was unexpected
was the unpredictable weather during the 2 week project - snow, fog, hale, highwinds and tornado warnings.
“By the end of the project, we were completely exhausted but very satisfied with the
results of the precise digital survey.”
-Ends-
Notes to editor
1. Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government charged with
safeguarding the nation’s historic environment. The agency is fully accountable to
Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament. For more information
visit www.historic-scotland.gov.uk
2. For additional information
www.scottishten.org
on
the
Scottish
Ten
project
please
go
to
3. The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is one of the United Kingdom’s (UK) most
successful higher education institutions specialising in architecture, design and fine
art. It has an established reputation world wide for high quality education and search
that is demonstrated by the outstanding successes of its students and graduates and
the professional standing of its staff. It is home to an international community of
1700 undergraduate and postgraduate students studying in the schools of
Architecture, Design and Fine Art, or at the Digital Design Studio. For further
information: www.gsa.ac.uk
4. CyArk is a non-profit entity whose mission is to digitally preserve cultural heritage
sites through collecting, archiving and providing open access to data created by laser
scanning, digital modelling, and other state-of-the-art technologies. For more
information visit www.archive.cyark.org
5. Register for media release email alerts from www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/news If
you wish to unsubscribe at any time, please email [email protected]
6. Follow the progress of the Scottish Ten online

www.twitter.com/scottishten

www.flickr.com/photos/historicscotland

www.youtube.com/historicscotlandtv
7. Register for media release email alerts from www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/news. If
you wish to unsubscribe at any time, please email [email protected].
8.
The Year of Creative Scotland began on January 1, 2012 and will spotlight and
celebrate Scotland’s cultural and creative strengths on a world stage. Through a
dynamic and exciting year-long programme of activity celebrating our world-class
events, festivals, culture and heritage, the year puts Scotland’s culture and creativity
in the international spotlight with a focus on cultural tourism and developing the
events industry and creative sector in Scotland. More information about the
programme can be found at: www.visitscotland.com/creative
9. The Year of Creative Scotland is a Scottish Government initiative led in partnership
by EventScotland, VisitScotland, Creative Scotland and VOCAL. More information
and resources to help businesses engage with Year of Creative Scotland are
available at www.visitscotland.org/yearofcreativescotland-toolkit
Contact:
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Issued:
Lesley Brown, Communications and Media Officer
0131 668 8603
07920 768096
[email protected]
Jan 12, 2012