South Yard to lead global renewables and marine projects
business8 hours ago
A team of Australian scientists are using a world-first approach combining three-dimensional (3D) printing and virtual reality (VR) to bring a dinosaur "back to life".
Palaeontologists at a site in New South Wales state near the Great Ocean Road have uncovered more than 200 bits of bones of the wallaby-like leaellynasaura, an ornithopod native to Australia, in just 12 days, Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, mechatronics students from Deakin University are using the bones uncovered to create a 3D model of the dinosaur on a computer which will eventually be printed.
When completed, the project will be displayed at Geelong's National Wool Museum.
Experts from Deakin's Virtual Reality Lab will then create a VR experience to make the tactile 3D-printed model of the dinosaur appear real.
Ben Hornan, a co-founder of the project, said he hoped the experience would further the general population's knowledge of dinosaurs that once roamed Australia.
"We're looking at how we can use virtual reality and 3D printing to help with providing educational experiences in a museum context," Horan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Friday.
"So we are doing experiments on how we can best print dinosaur-like skin so people will not just feel the geometry, the size and the scale but also the contour of the skin as well."
Researchers believe they will be able to replicate the skin of a leaellynasaura by scanning a blue tongue lizard, which has scaly skin similar to that of the dinosaur, and 3D-printing its scales.
The leaellynasaura was a small herbivore and was thus understood to be a shy dinosaur, so participants who put the VR glasses on will be warned to approach it with care.
Patricia Vickers-Rich, the scientists who discovered the leaellynasaura in the 1980s, said the project was an exciting new way to communicate her work.
If you can't wait to see dinosaurs in real life, there's always Dubai Garden Glow in Zabeel Park. Check it out below.
- PHOTOS: Dubai's 'glowing' garden is back
- Dubai Garden Glow opens at Zabeel Park
South Yard to lead global renewables and marine projects
business8 hours ago
Dollar rises 0.6%, hovering near over 2-year highs
markets8 hours ago
Indialand Group’s commercial assets portfolio in Dubai now surpasses Dh500 million
business8 hours ago
With new wave of affluent investors on the way, fäm Lux team sets Dh10 billion sales target for new year
business8 hours ago
The Dubai Resilience Centre will collect and analyse data to create plans that can help address threats, risks, and disasters
uae8 hours ago
The role of a blockchain development company is becoming increasingly critical
business8 hours ago
Company seeks to boost creative economy
business8 hours ago
Save Earth Mission launches its ecosystem
business9 hours ago