3-D Scanning, Ancient Landmarks, and a Lesson in Resourcefulness

Dynasty Group Inc. is a Chicago-based engineering and land surveying firm with some fascinating side projects. Since 2001, Dynasty Group has been digitally recording and recreating historical sites and monuments. The firm uses GPS-enabled laser scanners to create 3-D point clouds, which are then overlaid with photographs taken by the surveying team, which act as an utterly realistic skin.

Dynasty Group first utilized this technology to aid accurate reconstruction of Wacker Drive in Chicago. Dynasty Group’s founder Zhong Chen subsequently took the methodology to China (his home country) to aid the stabilization of the Iron Lion of Cangzhou (which is over 1,000 years old), as well as document Chongqing Peoples Great Hall, parts of the Forbidden City in Beijing, and Twin Stone Pagodas in Quanzhou, Fujian Province.

Since 2007, Dynasty Group has also been busy scanning the Mogao Grottoes, a collection of over 700 ancient caves on the Silk Road in Gansu Province, China, which house unique sculptures, murals, and artifacts that are upwards of 1,600 years old. The resulting digital replicas are breathtakingly realistic- with scanning accuracy within a quarter of an inch and photography-based skin, one might find it hard to tell the difference between Dynasty Group’s models and the real thing.

This scanning methodology has a myriad of potential applications. Already, Dynasty Group has been called upon to aid reconstruction and historical preservation (as well as apply the technology to many engineering/surveying projects in the US), but the firm could also utilize its unique offering to create games, educational and instructional resources, virtual tourism destinations, informatively tagged digital exhibits, and a multifarious mix of other interesting products and resources.

What may be most poignant is that Dynasty Group did not invent this scanning and documentation technology; they simply formulated a new way of using it. Zhong Chen considers this methodology to be another “tool in our tool box.” That Chen also thought to apply this technology in more creative ways (namely to preserve ancient landmarks in China) also attests to the firm’s creativity when seeking applications for one of its competencies.

Today’s companies can learn from Dynasty Group’s philosophy- with so many new resources and technologies available, the real genius is in finding out how to utilize them in creative, relevant ways.

Dynasty Group