3-D Digital track: Roadmap for Laser Scans in the Field (VIDEO)
Caption
Portable laser scanning technology allows researchers to tote a fossil discovery from field to lab in the form of digital data on a laptop. But standard formats to ensure data accessibility of these “digitypes” are needed, say paleontologists at Southern Methodist University, Dallas. They field-scanned a 110 million-year-old Texas dinosaur track, then back at the lab created an exact 3D facsimile to scale. They share their findings -- and their downloadable 145-megabyte digital model -- in Palaeontologia Electronica. The model duplicates a fossil that is slowly being destroyed by weathering because it's on permanent outdoor display, says SMU paleontologist Thomas L. Adams. He describes how the researchers created the digital model and discusses the implications for digital sharing and archiving. See the full video discussion at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iNj0Pr9yR8&feature=player_embedded
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Southern Methodist University
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