Simulating Mount Rushmore

Experts from heritage group Historic Scotland have developed a technique using lasers to create precise digital representations of enormous sites. Mount Rushmore is the next location to be captured.

1 minute read

November 7, 2009, 7:00 AM PST

By Tim Halbur


Once captured, the team can simulate how the site looked in the past, or project forward.

"They can simulate the effects of climate change, urban encroachment or other natural or man-made disasters on those same sites, peering into the future.

Given a proposal for a new building in a city like Edinburgh, they can also create virtual realities, almost microscopically accurate, so viewers might see what the building looks like from all angles in the place where it's intended to go, including the shadows it might cast at different times of day."

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