Retroscaping
In addition to Retrocomputing and VintageScientific-Computing, I have an interest in history more broadly. Specifically, I am interested in historical reconstruction (a la the holodeck in Star Trek: TNG) and the potential of VR to help facilitate accurate depictions of past places and cultures.
I propose to use the noun retroscape ("A landscape or setting filled with things from the past." according to Wiktionary) as a verb to refer to such virtual reconstructions. I believe in using historical data aggregated from multiple sources (archives, historical societies, flea markets, cartographers, etc) to re-animate humanity's collective past.
Below I list links related to the fields and tools that are most necessary to facilitate this interest.
Geography
- NYPL Surveyor : A crowdsourced tool that allows you to enrich the metadata of historical photographs by giving them an associated geolocation. Currently only scoped to NYC.
- NYPL Warper : A crowdsourced georectification tool. I keep track of maps I've rectified at Georectification.
- USGS Topographic Maps
- USGS Historical Topographic Maps (also here
Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is the science/engineering/art of generating 3d objects by inferring their shape from 2d photos.
- Photogrammetry Subreddit
- Introduction to Photogrammetry by T. Schenck
- Recommendations for intro to photogrammetry
- Meshroom
Photography
- NYPL Surveyor (see above)
- 80s.nyc
- Collection of Stereoscopic views
360 Degree Photography
- Google Jump used to seem pretty cool, until Google's ADHD kicked in
- VR180 is Google's latest venture (because I guess the full 360 degrees was too much to ask)
- I stand by my trusty Ricoh Theta V.