CyArk, founded in 2003, is a California-based nonprofit organization with a pretty impressive and meaningful mission statement. That mission is “to digitally record, archive and share the world’s most significant cultural heritage and ensure that these places continue to inspire wonder and curiosity for decades to come.”
CyArk’s mission was cemented after founders Ben and Barbara Kacyra were moved by the unfortunate shock of the Taliban blowing up and destroying the fifth-century Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan. They point out that “we continue to lose our heritage at an astounding rate with mounting pressures from climate change, urban development, natural disasters and armed conflict, and CyArk seeks to create a record of these places before further loss.”
To date they’ve documented over 200 sites on all seven continents. Sites from every facet of human history have been documented, from modern marvels of engineering such as the Sydney Opera House to archaeological sites such as Skara Brae, a 3,000 B.C. Neolithic settlement in Scotland.
CyArk uses LiDAR and high-resolution imagery gathered from both the ground and drones to create accurate 3D surface models of the sites they document. The engineering drawings and detailed maps CyArk can provide from this data assist in critical conservation work. Their comprehensive record of sites can be used in recovery efforts following damage or catastrophic loss. In addition to conservation and recovery benefits, CyArk shares the power of these places by allowing immersive experiences through virtual reality (VR) environments.
Enter MasterWorks, a recently released and free app for the Oculus Rift VR headset. MasterWorks allows users to travel to some of the world’s most amazing places across three continents and over 3,000 years of human history. With the app, you can learn about the fate of the ancient capital of Thailand, the mysteries of a pre-Incan temple in the Peruvian Andes, the amazing Native American cliff dwellings of Colorado and the monumental stone carvings of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The locations are fully explorable, and users can collect virtual artifacts and learn from archaeologists and scientists about the builders of these amazing places as well as the challenges they face today with climate change.
CyArk has also collaborated with Google to let users utilize VR to discover the temples of Bagan and see firsthand how digital conservation is helping to preserve the city’s earthquake-damaged temples through digital conservation. The experience, called “Bagan—Embracing the Future to Preserve the Past,” utilizes 3D scanning, photogrammetry and 360-degree video. Accessible on desktop, mobile and WebVR, it allows users to travel through the landscape and explore the inside of decorated temples that are at risk of collapse while learning about their history as well. This is.
All the data-crunching required to create these amazing immersive experiences from the raw scan data requires a lot of computing power. CyArk turned to NVIDIA GPUs for that processing power. CyArk technicians use powerful workstations equipped with NVIDIA Quadro P6000 cards to convert the raw data to 3D imagery utilizing a software package called Capturing Reality.
John Ristevski, CEO of CyArk, explained that “the P6000 GPUs enable CyArk to crunch its data many times faster than would be possible on CPUs.”
“More important than speed,” Ristevski said, “is the improved ability to present detailed textures. CyArk has seen resolution of those textures shrink from centimeters down to fractions of millimeters, which is a huge consideration for the heritage community.” He added, “Every square inch of surface is unique. We can’t make up textures or replicate textures. We have to preserve every little pixel we capture to the highest degree.”