The use of laser scanners in documenting cultural history

Abstract

Cultural heritage is all tangible or intangible assets that carry traces of the past of the society, as well as transferring knowledge in terms of social, political, cultural accumulation and technical equipment used. Once the tangible or intangible cultural heritage is destroyed, it cannot be replaced, so it must be made sustainable, protected and documented. Different techniques have been applied for the documentation of cultural heritages in the past and today. These techniques can be divided into traditional and technological. Although traditional techniques are insufficient for damaged or sensitive detail measurements, they have begun to be abandoned due to their low sensitivity and slowness. Today, traditional documentation techniques have been replaced by technological documentation techniques with fast, optimal cost, high accuracy and precision. Some of the technological documentation techniques; documenting with total station, GNSS, lidar, photogrammetry and laser scanning technique. In this study, the definition and importance of cultural heritage is explained and the comparison of traditional and technological methods; the subtleties of the laser scanning technique, which is one of the technological methods, and its comparison with other techniques; Classification of laser scanners, working principles of laser scanners and technical features of terrestrial laser scanners of some commercial companies are explained. As a result, this study will answer the question of why I should / should not use laser scanning technique in the documentation of a cultural heritage and can be used as a base for future studies.