Google’s New Project Showcases At-Risk Historical Sites In VR

Google Arts and Culture, the tech giant’s platform that focuses on preserving and sharing art from around the world, has partnered with the non-profit CyArk on a new project that aims to showcase at-risk historical sites in virtual reality.

Called Open Heritage, the project lets users look at sites like the temples of Bagan, which have been damaged over time by earthquakes. CyArk uses 3D laser scanning to digitally portray sites like Bagan and overall has digital records of over 200 such monuments worldwide. Viewers can look at these sites on desktop, mobile, or through VR headsets.

So far through Open Heritage, there are VR experiences of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, Chichen Itza in Mexico, and Ancient Corinth in Greece. CyArk maps these sites, which are either deteriorating due to natural elements or in danger of human interference, by first scanning their surfaces with laser light to create a “3D data set” (essentially a bunch of points), from which the company creates a wireframe and generates a 3D model (you can read more about this process on CyArk’s website

“With modern technology, we can capture these monuments in fuller detail than ever before, including the color and texture of surfaces alongside the geometry captured by the laser scanners with millimeter precision in 3D,” said program manager at Google Arts and Culture and archeologist Chance Coughenour in a press release. Not only does technology offer a VR view of in-danger historical sites, but Coughenour said it also provides restorers with more detailed information when they’re reconstructing parts of these sites that have been destroyed.

Data from the Open Heritage program is made public upon request. Teachers, artists, or people who just want to print a 3D model of Chichen Itza can fill out a data request form here. To go on virtual tours of Ancient Corinth and the like, viewers can use Google Arts and Culture’s iOS and Android apps or Google’s VR platform, Daydream.