Detailed 3D scans of the Forth Bridge will form the basis for interactive games promoting engineering skills for school children, supported by a grant from Transport Scotland.
First announced in 2014, the £300,000 scanning project claims to be one of the most challenging and complex 3D scans. It has amassed a ‘data-cloud’ of many billions of dimensionally accurate points on the structures of the Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge and the partially built Queensferry Crossing.
Now a further grant of £425,000 from Transport Scotland has enabled Scottish digital heritage experts to start work on learning games, augmented reality apps, real-time interactive models for virtual headset tours and video fly-throughs for release in 2018, all aimed at developing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills among pupils in Scottish schools.
Transport Scotland funded the project on behalf of the Forth Bridges Forum and the laser scanning and digital development work has been carried out by the Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation, a partnership between The Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation and Historic Environment Scotland.
The laser scanning work began in May 2015 and involved 90 days digitally documenting the bridges on foot, from ropes, vehicles and boats. Mobile mapping was undertaken in partnership with Leica Geosystems UK. It has created a huge point cloud mapping the structures and their overall physical footprint over 3.6 square kilometre.
Read the full story and see the video animation of the ‘point cloud’ data of the Forth Bridge and Forth Road Bridge.
