USING 3D LASER SCANNING SERVICES TO HELP UKRAINE SAVE ITS HISTORY
Preserving the Culture
During the recent war in Ukraine, the citizens are also vulnerable and susceptible to danger and history. This was of utmost importance on February 24, when shots were being fired in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and biologist Anton Vlaschenko aimed to save as many specimens as possible at the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center. With the help of 3D laser scanning services, more may be able to be saved.
The Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center contains everything from rescued rehabilitating bats and collections of skulls. Vlasheckenko released the bats hibernating for the winter but had to keep the ones that were not healthy enough to release. The skulls are just as important to save because they contain information about evolution, climate change, migratory patterns, and future research.
Other Ways 3D Laser Scanning Services Are Being Used
The Bat Rehabilitation Center is not the only place at risk regarding Ukraine’s history; all museums, specimens, and data are also included. Some sciences use fossils that are meters long to do their work. In hopes of combating the loss of Ukraine’s history along with data and specimens collected from decades of work, 3D scanning services are being utilized.
Museums are bracing for impact and preparing to relocate ancient artifacts to safe spots—no one to say where and what places will be hit. Data archives were mainly stored on physical hard drives in Ukraine, which puts them at risk. People worldwide are helping transfer data over to one giant archive for Ukraine through 3D scanning services.
For data and specimens that may not be able to be saved, these 3D laser scans are utilized for scientific journals, book collections, and 3D tours of museums. This is done by transferring data to a collective site named “Saving Ukrainian Culture Heritage Online Online” SUCHO. Everything was copied to this giant archive. Unfortunately, the whole site went down.
Data is continuing to be transferred outside of Ukraine with the help of 3D scanning services. The worry is that Ukrainian servers will get shut down, which is why everyone from the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard and the German Archaeological Institute, and more, are coming together to provide ways for Ukrainians to upload data straight from their computers to a safe spot.
Five terabytes of data have been stored, mainly on culture and history. One hundred gigabytes of drawings, photos, and spatial data have been saved from the Cherkasy Regional Museum.
There is still much more to be uploaded and saved, including photos and archives from more museums, which would not be possible without the help of 3D scanning services.