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| image source: http://mindsparker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Otzi-the-iceman.png |
[A note about this blog entry: The blogging staff of Digital Directions is taking a short summer break. However, we dove back into our hundreds of posts and thought you might enjoy revisiting this interesting topic originally posted Tuesday, September 27, 2011.]
Won't they?
So, when the question “Will Your Grandchildren Know What You Looked Like as a Child?” appeared in a recent Risk Factor blog, posted by Robert Charette, on Spectrum.Ieee.org, it seemed like a no brainer.
Why of course my grandkids will know what I looked liked as a kid. Especially now that so much of all the world's photographs are digital! They will be zooming around out in cyberspace, the cloud, or whatever its called...forever...won’t they?
Reckless to lost!
Charette goes on to explain just how reckless many have become given the lighting fast availability to put time in a bottle, using the ever growing multitude of digital devices able to record images. Could it be possible due to oversight, lack of planning, or perhaps just pure and simple neglect we are destined to be no better off with these technological wonders, than what preceded them?
Would it be feasible that despite the trillions of photos, we too might end up as a mere photo scan project a thousand years from now? Lost to the digital ages with only speculation and an artist rendering of what we may have looked like - left as our legacy to those that will come after us?
Frozen Fritz
Ötzi was named after the Ötzal Alps, the region in which his body was discovered. He is also known as the Similaun Man, the Man from Hauslabjoch, and even Frozen Fritz. From the time of his discovery in 1991, scientists and others have speculated that the Iceman was a hunter. But a recent study suggests that he may have been a shepherd instead.
The Iceman Photo Scan Project coincided with the 2009 opening of the exhibition; 'Mummies: The dream of everlasting life' (Museo delle Antichità Egizie, Torino). This project was born out of the EURAC research institute in South Tyrol, Italy.
The European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC) lies in the heart of the Dolomites. Created in 1992 as an independent research center, EURAC is home to researchers from all over Europe who work together on a wide range of interdisciplinary projects. Experts in law and natural sciences, linguists and geneticists collaborate with public and private agencies towards the resolution of some central issues of our day.
The Iceman Photo Scan project is a revolutionary website which records the complete photographic documentation of the Iceman mummy. Due to the preservation conditions required to maintain the mummy, the public is unable to gain close access to the body. The website that arose from this project enables the user to view the entire mummified body. Photographs were taken from a dozen different angles with nearly 800 scans required to map the whole body. As a result, it is possible to discover what this 5,300 year old mummified grandpa looks like without compromising its preservation.
See the Iceman & Save Your Digital Materials From Extinction
You can visit The Iceman Photo Scan website at http://iceman.eurac.edu. And, to learn more about how to preserve your own digital materials before they are lost forever, visit The Library of Congress' Personal Archiving - Digital Preservation Guide.
Digital Directions is sponsored by E-Z Photo Scan. Get started photo scanning today by renting or purchasing a Kodak Photo Scanner, or by using our photo scanning services.
