Boudica I A M - Immersive Animated Maps

This project is designed to create an innovative type of immersive animated map, combining LIDAR data, drone footage and animation to create visual materials with applications in many industries, including construction, archeology, environmental and urban planning and the film industry.

LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a remote sensing method that uses laser light to measure distances to the Earth, or within a defined space. By emitting laser pulses and measuring the time it takes for them to bounce back from objects, LIDAR generates precise, three-dimensional information about the shape and surface characteristics of the target.

This technology is widely used in various industries, including archeology, to reveal hidden structures and landscapes without excavation, and urban planning and construction, to create accurate models of buildings and infrastructure.

The data that emerges from LIDAR analysis is often either point cloud or mesh, which is hard for an end user to interpret and understand. This data is vast and complex, requiring significant processing. Combining LIDAR with other datasets and visual imagery is technically demanding, and no one common route to do so exists.

Despite these challenges, making animated visual materials from the data offers substantial benefits. In construction, it enhances project planning, and visualises progress. For environmental management, it can visualise landscape changes and educate the public. In museum or archeology application, it can create immersive experiences for visitors, preserve digital records of important sites, and help in research by revealing unseen details.

We aim to create a framework for efficiently turning LIDAR data into immersive and exciting visual material, streamlining the current process and creating a new platform for wider use of this data.

Our initial pilot project will take place on a piece of land near Coventry, to which we have exclusive access, which is believed to be the last battle site of Boudica's revolt against the Romans in 60AD. Working with animators, LIDAR providers, archeologists, and mapping organisations, we will create accurate visual materials that show the land now and as it might have been in the time of Boudica.

This part of the project will be licensed to local and national cultural organisations to educate and inform about our heritage in an innovative and inspiring way.

Increased accuracy and decreased costs in future combined with improvements in data processing and visualisation software will only make our potential for growth more significant.