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3D Modeling for Heritage Visualization
Laser Scanner 3D Modeling
GPS 3D Modeling
Modeling Applications
Surface Characterization - Microtopography
Model Development and Historic Preservation
Architectural Visualization and Urban Analysis

Surface Modeling - Microtopography

In a typical workflow, the preprocessed 3D scanner data might be exported as an ASCII point file and imported into a software package such as Surfer. The data can be gridded using a variety of different gridding operations, to smooth the noise caused by 'attenuation' in the image such as vegetation, and finally used to generate contours from the resulting DEM. The gridded output can be imported into software such as IDRISI and used to generate contours, slope and aspect maps.

Double Ditch Site Trimble 5600 Survey Double Ditch State Historic Site Bismarck,North Dakota July 2004

Double Ditch (32BL8) is an unusually large archeological site. At approximately 4.8 ha within the second or outer ditch seen in the topography, it is one of the largest fortified settlements along the Middle Missouri River. It is also distinctive in the size and number of its large midden mounds, some over 3 m, the many shallow depressions 12-18 m in diameter that signify the loci of former houses, and its readily apparent double fortification system from which it derives it's name.

In July 2004 the site was surveyed with a Trimble 5600 Robotic Total Station. More info about Doule Ditch can be found at The North American Database of Archaeological Geophysics (NADAG).

Three-Dimensional Optical Scanning to Assess Erosion of Archaeological Sites, Yellowstone National Park, U.S.A.

High resolution (1-cm), three-dimensional images of archaeological sites exposed on the shore of Yellowstone Lake (Yellowstone National Park, USA) were acquired utilizing the High Accuracy/Resolution Landscape and Surface Characterization System (HARLS-CS). The HARLS-CS deployed during August 2004 in Yellowstone National Park was composed of an Optech ILRIS 3D laser profiler, Trimble 5700/5800 total station with GPS, and supporting software (e.g. Innovmetric PolyWorks and EOS PhotoModeler). Preliminary scans of archaeological sites at Osprey Beach and nearshore bluffs adjacent to 48YE449 and 48YE395 provided extraordinarily detailed 3-D imagery that will serve as reference images to quantify erosion of these sites resulting from rain, wind, wave, and ice activity along the lakeshore during the next year. This demonstration project will provide resource managers unparalleled ability to accurately document degradation of important archaeological sites resulting from natural processes and will provide insight into the magnitude of lakeshore erosion/deposition with the aim of developing strategies for long-term management of critical cultural resources in the nation’s oldest national park.