Ireland’s largest castle boasts 20 sides, three-meter-thick walls, and the remains of what was once a moat. The Trim Castle, which dates to 1172 and took 30 years to build, is often referred to as one of the country’s most impressive medieval structures (you may even recognize it from some of the scenes in Braveheart). And while the castle is a sight to be seen, the keep, or main tower, can be difficult to navigate. Michael (Bodhi) Rogers and his team of students hope to change that.
Rogers, PhD, professor of physics, chair of the physics department, and a professional archaeologist, first visited Trim Castle on a faculty-led trip in 2016. That’s when he discovered the keep’s intentionally wonky stairs might be a barrier to some visitors’ ability to explore the castle. “I was sitting in the entry room on a bench and the tour guy said, ‘If you’re not comfortable going up the stairs, this is a good spot to wait,’” Rogers said. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a kiosk so people could do virtual tours?’”
Last summer, Rogers went back to Ireland with four of his students. The trip was no small feat—Rogers had to get approval from the Irish government to conduct research at the historic site. Rogers and his students spent three and a half weeks in a town outside of Dublin to take scans of the keep’s interior using a laser device, which those in the field call a “scanner.” The laser beam, which hits an object about a million times per second, produces a 3D image of a space and captures details as intricate as the lines in the floor and the texture of the walls.
The scans can be used to create a virtual reality experience, so individuals with mobility limitations can take a tour of the castle’s keep without moving around. “We are helping make the castle more accessible,” Rogers said, adding, “It also helps historic preservation. If something were to break, the scans provide a blueprint.”
Scanning the keep would normally have taken Rogers six weeks, but with new technology and software, the task was completed in just a few days. And, because of the advanced scanners they used, the new images can replace outdated scans that were over- or underexposed, Rogers said. “We recorded the location of everything in the room to a resolution of 5 millimeters or better,” he added.
Fernando Ramirez, who is graduating this May with a BS in physics, will remember the trip as a pivotal moment in his college experience. The work supported his capstone thesis, which is a comparative analysis of two different scanners, and got him excited for his future—he wants to pursue a PhD in atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics or biophysics. “I love the physics behind what we are doing,” he said. “The 3D scans that come out are amazing for historical preservation and tourism.”
For Ramirez and Rogers, a highlight of the trip was being immersed in a new culture. Unlike tourists, the group developed a routine. They stayed at the same place, visited the same coffee shop each morning, and took the same route to and from the castle. “After the fourth day, people realize you’re still there, and folks will want to chat,” Rogers said. “You learn a bunch of cool things about the community. … That’s one of the most fascinating aspects.” He also noted the impact on the students. “We take time to talk about what they are experiencing,” Rogers said. “Our students are going to go to STEM industries, and those are inherently global now.”
Now, Rogers’ team is working to make the Trim Castle scans more accessible to the masses. They are currently developing a prototype for a virtual tour of the keep through an open-source website. They are also working on ways to offer a virtual tour of the keep on advanced technologies like tablets, virtual reality devices, and digital displays.
But the work doesn’t end there. Rogers hopes the model can be used for other historic sites and spaces. For Ramirez, the research has a significant impact on the field he will soon work in. “We are bridging science and accessibility,” Ramirez said.