I once worked with archaeologist Joel W. Grossman, Ph.D., (Berkley
Ph.D. on Peruvian prehistory) who was a 3D innovator in archaeology.
We had a a 3D stand in beta with "joy stick-like" potentiometers to
digitize ceramic sherds, which at the time were then "completed" for
example to determine volume. He also had a circular disc built on a
tripod to photograph deposits that were then 3D slides for viewers of
the "Augustine Heerman Warehouse" in old New Amsterdam photographed
with an overhead bi-pod holding a camera next to Whitehall Street in
lower Manhattan during the winter excavations in early 1980s. A
similar bipod (or monopod?) was used by the French "Museum of Man" to
document the excavations in the hydroelectric project in Uruguay
investigated by my Welsh/Uruguayan classmate, Mary FitzHerbert,
continued by a Fulbright scholar who reported on southeast research in
"American Antiquity".

In the late 1980s early 1990s I was involved with Joel Grossman again
and then he was working with Prometric Technologies, now of Markham,
Ontario on the 3D close-range photogrammetric recording of
archaeological features using the Rollemetric MR2 system, also used in
accident reconstruction, building "as-builts", petroglyph recording
(one a spiral around a basalt column next to a precipice created after
the depiction, another I speculate might be the "Little Bighorn"
recorded from the native's perspective in Moosejaw, Canada where
Sitting Bull fled), to document the movement of stonework of the
Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral built on top of an Aztec ceremonial
center, perhaps, and other metrology especially as we were involved in
the archaeological evaluation and recording in the EPA's National
Priority Superfund cleanups, it was seen as a tool for least contact
method of recording. As a tool it's what you want to know however that
makes it useful.

Sometimes, a few of the RFP's I've heard about that have been sent out
requesting estimates, require that the company not just do the
"standard job" but require some new "spiffy" ("sexy") new advancement
in the "discipline" in order to be given the work  Some of these never
were part of the final design plan, as the researched exposure levels,
objectives and politics change the underlying assumptions, creating
other situations.

I'm not sure how 3D is applied in other work I worked in AutCad since
it became 3D and it was part of our reports using State-Plane
coordinate info from transit readings, a standard used by surveyors
for the clients in the US. Getting them might be difficult.

George Myers

On 4/9/07, geoff carver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> these 3D "printers" were the hot item at the CAA (Computer Applications in
> Archaeology) in berlin last week, judging by all the stands offering them:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/business/05scan.html
>