Muy bien.
Good afternoon.
First of all, I would like to
thank Brown University, Bob
and Parker for this
invitation. [INAUDIBLE] that
has been corresponding with me
in three different continents,
until we finally, almost
[INAUDIBLE] to come here.
So here we are.
OK.
I'm going to try to
put you up to date
in the use of a
new technology that
is going to change the way
we think of archeology,
and that we do
archeology, I think.
In doing so, I would like
to say a couple of words
first and foremost.
I'm not an expert in drones.
I've never built a drone.
I wouldn't know how
to build a drone.
And I think that the same
thing happens with cars.
I don't know how to build
a car, but I drive cars.
So if this was a talk
about building drones,
then I would have
to be an engineer.
I'm not.
I'm an archaeologist.
So I'm a user, an avid user,
of these kinds of technologies.
And that is a starting point.
Can we use these
technologies and apply them
to the kind of work we do,
not changing our essence,
basically, because we're
still asking questions
about ancient
civilizations, adaptations,
landscapes, where people
were, what were they doing.
Si?
And anything that
comes in [INAUDIBLE].
Anything that we
can find that helps
us understand these kind
of questions, we will use.
Si?
And we use technologies that
are some extremely advanced,
and some that are
very traditional.
Now in my particular
case, my interest
comes from a very
pragmatic thing.
So let's start this play,
as it is d with a question.
Peru has roughly 100,000
archaeological sights,
only considering the
medium and the large ones.
The problem is that we
don't know where they are,
nor what are their status.
We know that there are a lot.
Lima itself-- only the city
of Lima, the capital of Peru--
has 376 archaeological
sites that have
been registered in [INAUDIBLE].
Only the city of Lima.
If we go to the
Cusco region, sites
are absolutely everywhere.
So our problem is that
we need to find them,
and we need to determine
their characteristics.
We now run across
them when we build
roads, when we do electric
lines-- basically,
anything that has to
do with development.
And as we were talking
about a minute ago,
Peru is now going through
a very fast development.
There's a lot of
industry, mining.
There's a lot of
stuff happening.
And although we welcome
that, one of the first
impacts that we are
receiving through that,
or because of that, is on
our cultural patrimony,
also in our environmental
patrimony, as we call it.
So we need to develop
techniques that actually
allow us to move a
little bit faster
than we have done before.
To protect them, we need to
know exactly where they are,
and what is their condition--
their size, their volume,
their materials, their
threats to conservation.
So we have to go out and
do survey and assessment.
No?
We have to find
the sites, and we
have to determine what
are their condition.
But we need to do
this real fast.
We are now building, in
Peru, a gas pipeline that
is going to go into the
depths of the jungle,
the Amazonian jungle,
with the gas there,
and is going to take
it to Southern Peru,
going basically
through Machu Picchu.
There's no other way.
So I mean it's going to impact
hundreds, if not thousands,
of sites that we have been
find before this happens.
No?
In most cases, to
prevent these pipelines,
these electric lines, these
roads, these hospitals,
these schools, these
factories-- anything
that any modern society needs
and that allow us, or should
allows us, to have, let's
say, a balanced relationship
between our past
and our present,
so that we can build a future.
And I'm talking here
as an ex-politician.
No?
OK.
So to find-- and we can use
traditional archaeological
survey and topography
techniques,
or we can rely on
new technology.
And that's where drones come in.
Si?
Traditionally, we have to
go out, and walk and walk
and walk, and find
the sites, and then
register each one of them.
Si?
Take some pictures
from ground level.
And then with that maybe
use some satellite pictures
that are not very
clear to do our work.
But that is clearly
not effective.
So what can we do about it?
We have been developing
these techniques,
and they have received somewhat
of a world attention-- The New
York Times, and also
PBS, actually, went down
and see what we were doing.
And again, they were surprised
because we were not doing
anything particularly exciting.
We were simply doing
it every single day.
And that was the point of this.
So let's start with a little
history of air photography
in the world and in Peru.
In spite of what we
think, man, I think,
has not wanted to
fly all the time.
What we have wanted
to do, I think,
is it look the world from above.
You see?
Flying is a means to an end.
We want fly like a bird
because we want to see,
from above, what is happening.
And this is something
that, I mean,
the cave men or
women wanted to see
what was in store for them
behind that mountain--
maybe a bear, maybe a prey.
And the Roman centurion also
wanted to know what was there.
So what we want to do is
not-- it's not really fly.
It's actually look from above.
And that changes
completely everything
because once we start
flying, what we want to do
is actually have this
capacity to perceive things.
And we have been flying longer
than we have been seeing,
in a way, because hot air
balloons were invented
in the time of
Louis XIV in France.
And it was not until
more than 100 years later
that we developed photography.
And as soon as we
had cameras, we
put them on top of
hot air balloons
and start shooting pictures.
The oldest pictures that we
have come not from France,
but from Boston, and that
is one of the oldest air
photographies in the
history of photography.
You see?
So as soon as we had the
means, we went up with cameras,
and we start shooting
pictures that
revealed the fabric of the
human-made environment,
but also the fabric, the
texture, the order that
is also part of nature.
So we really found something
that we were looking for.
In the 1930s, a
US-led expedition,
directed by Shippee and Johnson,
flew over Peru finding, I mean,
things that were amazing.
Peru is particularly nice for
flying and taking pictures
because there is very
little vegetation
in most of the country,
except for the jungle.
So the pictures that
you take, and the sites
that are revealed by them,
are really incredible.
No?
This is a pictures of a
publication that changed
the way we look at archeology.
It was published by
[INAUDIBLE] and he
used the
Shippee-Johnson pictures
to reveal some of the most
fantastic archaeological sites
in the coast of Peru.
He was actually the one that
noted the famous Nazca Lines.
And in this picture,
we have [INAUDIBLE]
next to a German woman called
Maria Reiche that stayed,
and for all her life--
and died, actually,
15 years ago-- becoming the
important researcher in regards
to the Nazca Lines.
So with these type
of pictures, you
can see archaeological sites
in ways that are really unique.
Things move on.
National services are developed
on the basis of these air
photography services--
appear and start
staking photos in a much
more organized fashion.
This is a photo of
the southern end
of Lima, where you can see the
end of the agricultural fields
and the beginning of an
archaeological site called
[INAUDIBLE].
Now, we have used
every mean that we
have had in store in order
to accomplish what we wanted.
Some archaeologists
have been using kites,
and it was really, really
popular several years ago.
You get your kites.
There's wind.
You put your super-expensive
camera, and up you go.
And then, the wind stops,
and down comes your camera,
and you lose, immediately,
$10,000 like nothing.
Or you had it up there, but the
wind's very, very, let's say,
weak.
And in order to keep it
up, you are doing so much
shaking that your pictures
are completely out of focus.
It's a disaster.
And we did it.
Of course, we tried
like everybody else.
This is another one.
This Peruvian
archaeologist, Erik Maquera,
developed a system using
happy-birthday balloons--
there-- helium.
No?
Enough balloons to actually
lift up his camera.
You can see there.
And he took some really
wonderful pictures super slow
because the pictures
are actually--
you have to walk with
them, with the balloons.
You cannot get that
high up in the sky.
So in has its
complications, but I
mean this tells you
how much archaeologists
have wanted to do
this, and how they have
tried absolutely everything.
No?
I mean, if you really
want to be more risky,
you can do like this
woman, Evelyn Merino,
and go up in the sky in
an ultra-light aircraft
like this one here.
Now Evelyn-- that is a Peruvian
photographer very interested
in archeology-- has
taken some of the most
spectacular pictures, but I
wouldn't fly on top of Lima
with a machine like this for
all the gold in the world.
It's risky.
I mean, you don't
know when you are
going to fly into a [INAUDIBLE]
or something like that.
But then you can get-- this is
a picture of a huaca in downtown
Miraflores, la Huaca Pucllana,
a shrine from the Lima times.
No?
Quite interesting, and you
can see how the picture is
revealing us a texture-- the
walls, the rooms, et cetera--
that we cannot seen when we are
looking at the site from below.
Now, there's a lot
of scholarship,
and in this I'm
simply paying tribute
to my academic background.
No?
There's a lot of people that
have been lately thinking
about this and writing.
And this is not only a subject
that is developed by amateurs.
People are thinking
about the technical side.
So we have here a great
review article in Nature
about the science of
technology and the future
of this type of technology.
And if you read
this stuff, you see
that this field is growing
immensely, and extremely fast,
with all sorts of
complications and charts.
We are finding out that we
have to improve battery time,
flying time.
Weight is important.
And so on and so forth.
The other concern is like
in these three documents
from the European Union-- the
ethical side, the citizen side
of drones, property, privacy.
Things that are absolutely of
concern for everybody in both.
Privacy and that type of
[INAUDIBLE] complications
of [INAUDIBLE] use of drones.
No?
We have been interested
in the regulation of this.
And in this there is
something that is peculiar
because the US is
the most, let's
say, late user-led society
in terms of regulating
the use of drones.
And that is actually not
only the US development
of a strong industry of drones,
civil industry of drones,
but actually the world because
everybody follows the FAA
regulation standards.
So because there is
not a standard here,
and there are
several restrictions
to the use of drones
for commercial purposes,
we are all paying the
price around the world.
We are all waiting for
the FAA to actually decide
what's happening.
So we are now having a
lot of people-- lawyers
and scientists, people
involved in the field of law
enforcement-- that are
thinking about how are they
going to use these
type of things,
and what are the implications.
But we see that
on the other side
there are some really
advanced uses that
have been happening outside
of the margins, let's say,
of the regulation.
Elsewhere in the
world, we have people
that are using them for
humanitarian work, people
that are using them for the
recovery of avalanche victims.
No?
This is a typical use
of drones these days.
Where we don't want to
go, we send the drones
that actually look for us.
Harvard released,
only a couple of weeks
ago, this study of
imagery, interpretation,
that assessing wind disaster
damage to structures, where
drones are intensively used in
order to establish, in really
no time, the real impact that
something like-- let's say
these types of hurricanes
or wind disasters.
No?
So here we have the
kind of protocols
that are being developed,
and the uses that they
are offering, and
the capacity we
have of mapping, in
very little time,
and assessing the impact
of one of these things.
I mean, we will have a swarm of
drones flying above Lima when
the next earthquake hits Lima.
And rather than
actually focusing
on one single incident-- the
fire that is happening then,
just after the
earthquake-- we will
have to be looking homogeneously
at the entire city.
Because maybe we
have a fire here
that is killing
two people, but we
have an orphanage
with 100 children that
is falling down next door.
But because it's so quiet, we
are simply not noticing it.
You see?
So we need protocols.
We need techniques that allow
us to use these types of things
in ways that are
like we see here.
So a lot of new uses for these--
some of the most advanced uses
are ones that you would
not think would come up.
But people in the biological
sciences-- in zoology,
for instance-- this one, a case
to study crocodilian nesting.
No?
Going out and mapping
the swamps in Africa,
and then assessing
where would you have
the nests of the crocodiles.
Or this one, where
you are using drones
for monitoring wildlife, et
cetera, or anti-poaching.
I mean, a whole lot
of different uses
that we can give to drones.
And of course, one
of the things that
happens with these
types of techniques
is that once you have all these
pictures that we will see,
is that you want to use them.
And to use them, we have
a parallel development,
and that is photogrammetry.
No?
That is a-- let's say it's a
technique that has been here
with us for a long time,
but that now, in combination
with what the drones can do,
is offering us some really
unexpected possibilities.
Muy bien.
On these foreign ecology
lead us into a field
that combines many different
avenues of information, data
generation, a field that
is called data archeology
as Parker said, or
cyber-archaeology
as Maurizio Forte said.
OK.
Now, the important
point here is that what
we need is not air
photography, but what we need
is on-demand air photography.
We-- the picture when we need
it, the moment that we need it.
No?
These are 1930s
pictures of the site
I have been working for the
last 25 years, on Jose de Moro.
Great historical
pictures tell us
how the site was 30 years
ago, or 70 years ago.
And this is a Google Earth
picture of the same site.
They are great, but
they are not telling me
what happened inside yesterday.
They are not telling me, for
instance, my excavation units.
They do not allow me to
see, from above, the units
as they are being digged with
the walls that are coming out
next to that big
excavation unit there.
See?
The thing is that with
this technique-- on top
of having the capacity to
go to a, let's say, archive
and pulling out old pictures--
I can take my own pictures
exactly the way I need them.
And that on-demand
capacity is really
what sets the use of drones
as an exception in the way we
work in archeology.
So using these
techniques, we can do
things we couldn't do before.
Like I can go up and map
the entire Huaca la Capilla
that I have been digging.
We have been digging in the
project for several years.
No?
We make the decision as to when
to fly it, what time of day,
what angle, and naturally, what
kind of information we produce.
We can go out to Pachacamac
and focus on one side.
We can take that
picture that we always
wanted to take from this huge
huaca in the site of Pama
Grande from behind,
not from the front.
You see?
And you position your
drone exactly where
you want it, exactly at the
time of the day you want it,
in exactly that-- let's say that
picture that you have always
dreamed about.
And it comes out.
Or this view of [INAUDIBLE]
a site next to Lima,
and so on and so forth.
So we have, finally,
the capacity
to go out and take those
pictures that we always
wanted to do.
So in terms of the
first goal-- let's say,
having the capacity to take the
picture that we always wanted
to take-- problem solved.
And actually, that's
an easier way.
Buy a drone, lift it up,
pointed the camera-- basically,
see on the screen what you
want to shoot and click.
That's it.
Can we do more?
Drones started-- drones are a
rather old but new technique.
Flying small things
that are unmanned
has been around since
the First World War.
What has happened lately, and
by lately I mean the last four
or five years, is
that the systems that
control these little
airplanes or helicopters
has been improving so much.
that actually-- that
is a revolution.
It all starts in the
military, of course.
And then the ingenuity of
engineers has simply blown.
We have small drones.
We have large drones.
We have all sorts of
single-winged drones
that fly very high, that
require very little energy.
In terms of helicopters,
we have, I mean,
everything that you can imagine.
No?
So it's interesting that
these technologies is now
changing so much.
Every time we think we
know absolutely everything,
a new model comes out
with new characteristics.
So let's say that the
industry, but also the field,
is not narrowed now
by only the stuff that
is being mass produced.
We can go from there to
huge things like these.
Some pictures of these are being
used mostly for military uses,
but this is a real helicopter
that can nevertheless
accomplish-- no?
Imagine the size of these
type of things, and the price.
Now, the drones that we mostly
use, the commercial drones that
are available that anybody
can buy-- you can go to Amazon
and buy these things and
get it delivered tomorrow--
are these kind of drones.
What can you do with
these kind of drones?
Are they really,
I mean, efficient?
Can you really do stuff
with these type of drones?
These drones are
absolutely fantastic.
The stuff that you
can do with them
is absolutely unbelievable.
And I'll show you first the
drones and what they can do,
and then we'll see the results.
No?
This is a flying machine.
I mean drones, basically,
are a means to an end,
as I said before.
The end is to get your
camera to get the picture.
That's the idea.
So you need to
have a good balance
between them camera
that you want to use
and the equipment that
is going to lift it
to where you want to send it.
Once you have it, you will
have all the possibilities
that you can develop.
Si?
So here we have a
number different kinds
of drones-- large
ones, small ones.
What is the real difference?
Well, the difference
is what they can do.
Small drones work under certain
circumstances and conditions,
bigger ones work under other
conditions and circumstances.
And you have to be aware of
that because if you do not
find a good, let's say, fit
between one and the other,
you are going to have problems.
This big equipment can life
up to six pounds of equipment.
So you can actually load
a couple of cameras on it.
No?
Even three or four.
Even from different
characteristics.
You can have
photographic camera.
You can have a thermal camera.
When you can have
different things
that are doing and taking
the images at the same time.
Flying them is becoming
less and less an issue.
Although, as we will
see, one thing is flying.
The other thing is flying well.
Because now they come with
all these type of, let's say,
programming, all
these software that
allow you to plan your
flights, to see exactly,
on your iPod or your phone, what
the camera is seeing up there.
Si?
You can plan your
missions and define them.
You can follow your drone
and know exactly where it is.
No?
You can determine
all kinds of metrics
for your drone-- [INAUDIBLE]
high speed, and so on.
You can even make it fly
around a single point.
It's called point of interest.
So it doesn't move out of there.
And you will tell it
to break that circle
and come back or
move somewhere else.
You can control it
in different ways.
I mean, it's incredible
how these things
are changing so fast.
It's like the computers in
the 80s, where every week you
had a new development, a
new computer, a new piece
of software, a new
piece of hardware
that actually made the
computer world so exciting.
That, by now, has
stopped, and it's not
as exciting at it used to be.
Well, drones are
exactly like that.
Every week we have a new thing.
Everything we have
a new development.
This one, for
instance, allows you
to fly on a specific pathway.
So you determine where
it's going to go,
and it's going to move exactly
in those positions with a GPS
that is incorporated
into the drone.
Si?
Or this kind of thing.
You put a censor on yourself,
and it's going to follow you.
So as you're going
downhill, you don't
have to worry about the drone.
It's simply going to follow
you, behind you at, let's say,
3 meters above yourself.
So sometimes we see
these people that
are filming these
incredible scenes.
It's basically because
of the software
because the software allows them
to do things that in the past
would have been impossible.
I wouldn't want to go
down a slope with somebody
flying a drone on top of me
because as soon as they mess up
it's going to crash onto me.
OK.
So back to reality now.
We started using these things
in Peru four years ago.
Only four years ago,
we made a big effort.
And between my
university, Harvard,
and a lot of friends
that pitched in,
because it was really
expensive then,
we bought this big piece of
equipment and started flying.
No?
This is the equipment
that we use.
All of this is
commercially available.
No?
It requires no
particular license.
And here in the field,
that guy up there
is-- he's not-- [? Rebasa ?]
is a Peruvian photographer that
started roughly the same time.
The guy's a photographer, so
the stuff he has been able to do
is basically take some
incredible pictures.
There is a fortress up in
the Northeastern Highlands
of Peru, Kuelpa, for the
first time taken from above.
Here you have Marcahuamachuco
at roughly 5,000 meters
over sea level.
No?
Mr. [? Rebasa ?] takes
his drones up there,
and he can get this pictures.
He has to wait all
day for the sun
to be in the exact position.
The guy's an artist, so
he's looking for, actually,
those shadows,
those moments when
the light is exactly
what he wants to do,
or this beautiful picture.
This is a place called
Chachapoyas in the Northern
Highlands of Peru where
the Chachapoyans built
the cemeteries up in
the cliffs in places
that are almost
impossible to reach now,
and that are almost
impossible to look photograph.
Because I mean, all
the pictures that we
had before from
these sarcophagus
were from below
or from the side.
But for the first time, we have
these images from the front.
How?
Flying a drone.
Now, flying a
small drone that he
could control very well
because if he crashes this
into the sarcophagi
then we have trouble.
I have been trying to
take pictures like that.
And I realize that I'm
not a photographer,
but nevertheless you can take
some pictures from angles
that are almost impossible.
This is a beautiful Inca
shrine, Salinas, south of Lima,
and there in front of the ocean.
I mean, I think
that the Inca, when
they thought of
building this site,
they were thinking of
this, of the relationship
between the site and
the ocean, projecting
this mountain into the ocean.
So in a way, I hope it
captures the essence
of what the Inca were trying to
do when they built this site.
No?
Or these pyramids, Chatuna,
in the Lambayeque region, This
is for the archaeologists.
This is Huaca Prieta, one of
the oldest settlements in Peru.
No?
One of the oldest fishermen
settlements in Peru.
It has dates that go
back 6,000 years BC.
And in there, back, you
have two other pyramids.
One is Huaca de El
Brujo and Huaca Partida.
Or an Inca settlement
in the valley of Pisco--
I mean, this is like
your typical pictures,
but rather than being your
typical picture, you fly up,
you wait for the moment for
the light to be perfect,
then you shoot.
Or Panquilma, for
instance-- a little citadel
in one of the little valleys.
There are hundreds and
hundreds of these next to Lima.
Now if we get a real
photographer, somebody
that has first built a
career as a photographer--
these are some examples out of
the web page for [INAUDIBLE]
of really incredible stuff.
So we can do this
type of things.
The liberty that we have now by
using this kind of equipment,
of achieving these
types of visions
that we never could before,
that is the first thing
that we can do.
We can go into forbidden
places and take
those pictures that probably
send you to jail immediately.
Because I guess,
if you were flying
above the forbidden
city in Beijing,
you're going to be in trouble.
Si?
Or we can capture
the, let's say,
geometry of that medieval
fortress in France.
OK.
Oh, why not?
The Golden Gate.
Now, if you know
about buying a drone
and going out and flying,
once you buy the drone,
and particularly if you want
to fly missions like the ones
we have to buy in
archeology, you, very fast,
will realize that it's
not only the drone.
There's the car.
There's the driver.
There's the security.
There's the
differential GPS station
that allows you to get
a really fixed point
in the ground, a control point.
There's a lot of
gear that is involved
in this type of things.
And of course, the
drone itself requires
all sorts of different things.
Because if you get yourself
up to the top of a mountain,
and you only have your drone
and your remote control,
no spare parts, and one of
your pieces break down--
you better have a
spare part then.
Otherwise, you'll have
to go back down to Lima,
into the city, to get it
back and then come back.
And when you realize that
there is more money involved
in the logistics than
in the actual equipment,
then, I mean, these
things, of course,
become more complicated.
And of course, when
we talk about drones,
one of the critical
things is batteries
because the time you want
to able to spend up there
is directly proportional to the
number of batteries you have.
And these things go real fast.
And that is one
of the things that
is interesting about
this technology
that I have discovered by using
it is that-- I mean, for all
the advancement that
it's having, batteries
have not changed much.
And still a battery
to fly a drone
is very big and very heavy.
So we hope that in
the future we'll
have more technological
advancements in terms
of batteries because of
course, you can imagine,
these things are very
heavy [INAUDIBLE]
Here are some
pictures of that unit
we put together in the
Ministerio de Cultura in Peru
to go out and patrol
the archaeological sits.
No?
The equipment being deployed,
the people running around
with the drones, no?
Setting shop and actually
getting into places.
In Peru where we have a
really rugged geography,
this is actually
something that is not
doing to save us time,
but sometimes, let's say,
save us the risk
that is involved
into getting into
sites, as we will
see at the end of this talk.
Now, the first thing is safety.
And now we have talked about
the equipment, the logistics,
and also legality
because both things
come one mixed with the other.
There's no standard.
There's no, really, law.
There's no fixed convention
in regards to drones.
What we have are basically,
I mean, some regulations,
some type of shared
ideas about this.
So this is the
Australian standard.
We shouldn't fly drones
on top of people.
We shouldn't fly
drones at night.
We shouldn't fly drones
above a certain height.
We don't want them
to crash or things.
So there are a number of things
that have to be regulated,
and we are going to
go in that direction.
Now, it's interesting
that, around the world,
we do not have a
single standard.
Every country has its
different standard.
And for journalists that are
moving from place to place--
I had a group or journalists
from the New York
Times in Peru-- they couldn't
get a drone through customs.
It was stopped, no?
And if the could have go
the drone out of customs,
they didn't have the
license to fly it.
So we are entering a world
in which many things have
to be regulated and changed
in order for us to advance.
These are US standards,
basically the same.
We will enter a phase
in which, I think,
we will have kind of a
rule, a number of rules,
that are applied to everything,
some of which are very common
sensical.
You should not fly a
drone next to an airport
because it's going to be
hazardous for the airplanes
that are coming in and out.
You shouldn't fly above people
because-- I can tell you.
I've been flying for
four years, and I have
crashed every single drone.
And my team in the
Ministerio de Cultura--
we have there like 20 drones--
has crashed every single drone.
There are things you
simply do not see.
The electromagnetic
spectrum-- you don't see it.
You don't know if you're
flying in an open space,
but there are some
electric lines and stuff
that is creating some distortion
that you not able to see,
but your drone is going
to be affected by it.
So you will lose control.
Your GPS will disappear.
So before that happens,
you have to be aware
that you shouldn't fly in areas
where you could harm somebody.
And those are ideas
that are very simple.
Hopefully, they will be
understood by everybody.
OK.
So I received, once,
this not in Lima.
"What's the big deal?
Anybody can fly a drone."
Of course everybody
can fly a drone.
No?
The problem is to fly
well, to fly efficiently.
And the only way to do that
is with a lot of practice.
No?
And a lot of practice
means a lot of practice--
going out, and exercising,
and trying to get yourself
into situations in
which your drones are
going to put you--
let's say to test
your capacity or your limits.
Now, there are several
different ways to fly a drone.
There are people
who rely on drones
for artistic or
archeologic-- I mean,
there are a lot of drone racing
these days, happening all over.
There are people who
simply love to fly.
The old generation air
models, as we call it in Peru,
flying airplanes, flew basically
because they like flying.
There's no other purpose.
Then there's a lot of people
that are doing air photography.
Assessment and survey
is a different kind
of flying because you
are going to try to cover
as large an area as possible.
Rescue, fire,
earthquakes requires
a completely different kind
of flying, much more risky.
You have to get
closer to the subject.
You have to have full control.
You have to hover,
and the kind of drone
that you're going to use is
going to be slightly different.
Now, maybe your drone has to be
shielded from external impacts
or influences,
electromagnetic in particular.
Because you might
be flying in an area
where you have electric
cable that have broken down,
and you have a lot of, let's
say, magnetic disturbance,
so your drone better
be prepared for that.
When we get to the
two in the bottom that
are the ones that I am
going to be talking about
in the next part of this
talk-- when we talk about
photogrammetry 2D
and 3D-- we need
to fly in ways that are very
peculiar and very different.
OK.
At the end of any one of
these flying, what you'll get
are thousands and
thousands of pictures.
I mean this kind of flying,
and the kind of pictures
you are going to
be taking, produce
a lot of the
information, in terms
of images, that are
very heavy, that they
require a lot of processing.
So what do we do with all of
these images and pictures?
Let's move to the
second part of this.
What we're going to
do is-- now we're
going to combine all those
pictures that we have been
taking using
drones, flying well,
after a lot of exercising,
after you're respecting
all these rules of thumb,
in terms of when to fly
and where not to fly.
After trying to be very careful
adapting the kind of equipment
that we want to use,
and the mission that
we want to accomplish.
Developing this
type of common sense
about how much
time you should be
flying, when you should stop.
If you fly at
night, for instance,
I mean that's not a very good
idea because at night you
don't see what is out there.
No?
So you might not see
an electric wire.
You might not see a branch.
You might not see people, and
that might mean a problem.
Nevertheless, we see them a lot,
in Peru at least, in weddings,
for instance.
And that is really dangerous.
When you see somebody
flying a drone in a wedding,
run because you don't
know when that thing is
going to fall down.
In Peru we had a
lot of, let's say,
not rioting, but demonstrations,
particularly by young people.
And we have our journalists
then flying the drones
just above the heads
of all these people,
and that's a really bad idea.
A really bad idea because
if anybody throws anything
at the drone, it's
going to come down.
And of course, it's small.
It's like three, four-pounds
drone-- one of those phantoms.
But that thing falling
on you from 20 meters
is going to kill you.
So people have to be very,
very careful about that.
But let's say that we have
gone through all those hurdles,
and we have all these pictures.
What do we do?
This is the kind of stuff we
get-- hundreds and hundreds
of pictures.
We're going to combine
all of these images
with photogrammetry,
with a technique that
has been around, that we
have used many, many times
before we had these air
pictures that we use
a stereoscopic visor to
try to determine height
and differences.
Now this has been
computerized, and there
are lots and lots of
software out there
that you can use in order to
use and process this stuff.
Here are some examples of the
software that is available.
There are a lot of
software that is free,
that anybody can go into
the internet and download
and start using.
There's from there to
really expensive, and very,
very precise,
software that can be
used for mining, for
instance, for electric wires,
for things that are
extremely precise.
So you have the whole range.
No?
The two more popular
software packages
for photogrammetry
applied to drones
are this one, Pix4D, a
Swiss, and this one here.
It is called PhotoScan
Pro, a Russian software.
No?
This, particularly, is used
intensively by archaeologists
now all over the world because
it's very powerful and also
kind of cheap.
No?
Nevertheless, it
all starts simply
by taking pictures, taking those
pictures to the computer where
you would need a lot of power.
And anybody that has
an engaged in this
will learn this very fast.
This is not the kind of
stuff that you can run,
let's say, on your
home computer.
You need a computer that
is much more robust,
to the point that they
give you recommendations
on configurations of
what computer to have.
See?
Look here.
We have some of that.
Now, we don't need a drone
to do 3D models of artifacts
and contexts.
You simply take pictures
with a regular camera.
We can take pictures
with your iPhone
and produce three-dimensional
models that are unique.
For instance, this is a model
I did in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York
when the guard was not looking
at-- change these things.
This is a photogrammetric
model, done with 52 pictures,
of an on-display Egyptian
scribe in The Met.
Anybody can do it.
I mean, there is really
no magic in this.
Of course, a little
training helps.
But you can walk
home with your scribe
and then print it
in your 3D printer.
No?
A little bit of touching
up and painting-- you'll
have home your real,
full-sized scribe.
Why go back to the museum
if you can have it yourself?
Well, because you want
to see the real thing.
So we can do things that
we couldn't do before.
Si?
Another example-- let
me get out of here.
These is, again,
in an exhibition
in an art exhibition in Lima.
A woman, spectacular Peruvian
sculptor-- so let's get here.
This is photogrammetry
in action.
We have taken with a
regular camera, absolutely
regular camera,
10-megapixel camera--
in this case we are using
roughly 100 pictures taken
in a specific way.
And actually, the
best way to learn that
is to look at the pictures.
They were taken around, like
if it was a cylinder around.
See?
There's a technique
to do that, but it's
a technique that is
very easy to learn,
and it's going to change the
way we relate with artifacts
because soon we will
not be satisfied
with two-dimensional
images of artifacts.
People will want
museums to be displaying
three-dimensional things.
So rather than having, I mean, a
database where you can download
two-dimensional
images, photos, we
will be able to download
three-dimensional images,
like the one you see here, where
you make the decision as you
want to see.
See?
Before, I have to trust
that whomever edited
that web page or that
catalog is giving me
the right angle for the piece.
Now, if I don't want this
angle, I can change it.
I can look from the back.
Where are those details in
the back, that painting there?
See?
I can go around and look
at it from any angle.
What we're doing is simply
this technique, photogrammetry,
in order to capture
and transform
two-dimensional representation
into three-dimensional
representations.
There's a process.
And tomorrow, in
Parker's class, we
want to go through the
secrets of photogrammetry,
but it's nothing
really complicated.
No?
And can you imagine
what the impact of this
will be in archeology?
I mean, when we dig, for
instance, rather than taking
pictures or drawing,
as we did in the past,
we'll now pull out
our cameras and do
three-dimensional
representations of whatever.
No?
We found a burial.
We found a [INAUDIBLE]
We found a brick.
Or we want to represent
stratigraphy for instance.
We can do that in
many different ways.
We can use really expensive,
three-dimensional scanners,
laser scanners, or we can
use very inexpensive means
like photogrammetry.
So that is going to change,
completely, what we do.
So we have examples
of different kinds.
This is an excavation done
in Peru by a friend of mine.
He found this incredible burial.
This is one stage
of the excavation.
This is the next one.
And we are only
taking these pictures.
There are the ones
that were, let's say,
allowed in very
short period of time
because this burial was
found so deep that it was
below the water table,
and every five minutes
it simply filled with water.
So we had to take the water
out, and then shoot, shoot,
shoot around, and then produce
this model that you see here.
It is as if we were
inside the burial.
We can look around, turn.
Maybe there's
something behind us.
See what is the relationship.
Walk through walls.
There's a wall we're in now.
So I mean-- and this is done
in less than five minutes.
Shooting, I don't
know, 100 pictures,
150 pictures in no time.
Once you've mastered the
way to take the pictures,
it becomes a second
nature, and you simply
shoot-shoot-shoot knowing
that you are going
to get results at the end.
So I mean, this is what we
did before in archeology.
And for those of you that
are archeologist's, remember
how much time you spent drawing,
and drawing, and drawing.
I have been digging,
for the last 25
years, very big burials.
I'll show you a
couple, but this is not
a talk about my excavations.
And we spent endless hours,
hundreds if not thousands
of hours, of multiple teams
of archaeologists digging
and drawing, digging and
drawing, and drawing.
It was endless, risking
the stability, the quality,
the preservation of the
objects that they were drawing
because they were exposed
for so long-- bones,
ancient metals, things that
are really, really fragile,
that have to be exposed and then
taken out as soon as possible.
And we had to leave them there
because it was an imperative.
It was a standard of
the archaeological world
to draw them in great
and full detail.
Well, now we can
do something else
by using the type of techniques.
So here you have that really
exceptional recording.
We don't need to fly to do
archaeological photogrammetry
and three-dimensional
reconstruction.
We can take a lot of
pictures from below,
and there is a technique that
actually allows us to do that,
and to imitate.
These pictures,
for instance, that
are representing this excavation
unit at this stage, or this one
here, were all taken-- you can
see the pictures-- from below,
from around.
The number of pictures that
you are taking-- this ring,
or these three parallel
rings of pictures--
is going to produce
enough information
to create this geometry
that you see here.
Or this is a new
excavation in San Jose de
Moro from last year,
excavations that
are led by one of my
colleagues, and-- So here we
have an excavation--
fresh, finished
in September of
last year-- where
we found altars decorated
with geometric designs
like the ones you see here.
In the back we have
a wall that is now
23 meters that have these
niches that you see in the back.
Now we need, in archeology,
to represent these in paper.
We need to do a map.
We map.
That's one thing that is second
nature for archaeologists.
We map.
We draw.
We try to represent, but always
our drawings and our mappings
are a very, I mean, crude
representation of that reality
that we are dealing with.
I mean, if we had done the
recording of this excavation
unit in a traditional fashion,
what we would have ended up
with was a plan,
bird's-eye view from above,
and maybe some details of
the walls that you see there.
But with this three-dimensional
model, in one take,
and roughly in 25 minutes
of shooting pictures,
we have completely, let's say,
captured all of the dimensions
at the same time.
The models that are produced,
these three-dimensional models,
can be scaled to
reality, so you don't
have to measure anything again.
Everything is
self-measured within,
and there are no errors.
Plus, we can then place this
three-dimensional model in a,
let's say, virtual world in
which it would be established
in one point using
georeferencing,
as we will see at the end.
And then, next year,
come back, dig next door,
and put that next to that.
I mean, only in
this virtual world
because in reality they have
never been shown together.
So we don't have to do things
that we did in the past
like open and reopen
excavation units.
We open one unit, dig it,
three-dimensionally model it,
then move it into
this virtual world.
Come back next year, work
next door, do the same thing,
and keep on going,
and keep on going.
At the end, we will
have a three-dimensional
representation of the
entire excavation.
It doesn't matter how many years
it takes you to actually expose
the whole thing, so this
is a good example of what
can be done on that regard.
OK.
So as you can see,
the excitement
about the things that
we can do are immense.
No?
These are images taken-- these
are the pictures, the photos,
that were used for that.
Now, there's not a single
photo taken by a drone.
Still, we're using
photogrammetry
by basically taking
pictures at ground level.
Si?
Now, these are the
steps, and I'm not
going to go in details on this.
It's only to show
you some examples.
These are the
pictures, and this is
the kind of stuff that you
are going to be building,
and the models
that are produced.
For us, I think
for archaeologists,
for any discipline
that is, let's say,
has to deal with reality,
and with a reality
that has to be-- either
artifacts or, contexts,
or sites-- this
is, absolutely, I
mean something that is going
to revolutionize everything
we are doing.
We're not going to
collect-- monedas-- coins
in the future as
two-dimensional representations.
We are probably going to
collect three-dimensional models
of coins because in the
three-dimensional model you can
see things that you cannot
see in the two-dimensional,
like the thickness, or
the angles, or the curves.
I mean, so any discipline that
requires this type of work
will be changed by this.
This is, finally,
one of the burials
that I've been digging
in San Jose de Moro.
This was the last one,
and this is stop motion,
just in case my 3D didn't work.
But here you can see how,
once we have the model,
we can actually start
moving in and out,
working with the
different elements,
doing the analysis of
artifacts, the measurements,
working with the bones, for
instance, without having
to sacrifice the context.
This is a really heavy one.
This is a model that was
done with 600 pictures.
It required lots
and lots of work.
Maybe, I mean, maybe two
hours of photographic taking,
rather than probably two
weeks of working under the sun
to draw this stuff.
Look at how much stuff
there was inside.
There are human bodies in
the end, and in the sides.
There's lots of ceramics.
There's the architecture has
to be mapped, and all of it
has been captured by the
three-dimensional model.
No?
And these are also--
these look like pictures,
but they are not.
They are the results of
the modeling process,
where we can capture absolutely,
everything in great detail.
So OK.
Again, all of these are models.
So we can go on and
on on this, and show
you more and more examples.
I think that at least you
are convinced of the fact
that, if we apply
these techniques,
we will be able to capture
and represent things
that we have never done before.
As exciting as it looks-- and
this is a real research tool.
People are not going to go
back and rerun your models.
This is more for the
person that wants
to get great detail,
great resolution, and that
is going to use it
where you're going
to be able to re-measure
absolutely everything,
go back, and redo.
What we are doing now is
developing a technique
in which the whole excavation
is then using these methods so
that we go layer by layer.
So we can actually reconstruct
the entire process,
for instance, of
the construction,
and filling one of these
burials, layer by layer,
by looking at the models
that we have been building.
So in a way, it has
completely changed
the way we approach the field.
Because in the past, I mean,
we were using other things.
I mean, we had
stopped, let's say,
in radars that actually allow
us to look below the ground.
But the actual process
of the excavation
was not much affected by that.
This is affecting the
way we dig because now we
have to dig, and stop,
and then do the record,
and do it fast, and
then keep on going.
And saving time on
one hand, but actually
having to do excavations in ways
that we haven't done before.
For my student, this is
great because, you see,
now they can devote most of
their time to the digging
process and not so much time
to the recording process.
And usually, your
students want to dig
more than they want to record.
When the time for drawing
comes, they actually disappear.
So you can do these
types of things.
Now these are
tools that allow us
to do things other than this.
For instance, in this example
here we have two units.
We have two chambers, a large
one here and a small one here.
These were dug
with the difference
of five years between the first
one, that was this small one,
and the large one
that is this one here.
But nevertheless,
we wanted to know
what were the relationship
between these two.
So what we did is we did
a three-dimensional model.
We handled the cut
out, the old burial,
modeled it independently,
and replaced it here.
So now we have a
view in which we
have two burials that with six
years difference between one
and the other, in a virtual
representation of them
as if they had been
dug the same day.
Once we have that, and we have
superimposed the two models,
we can do things
like, for instance,
turning them on
their side and using
the relative depth of
each one, something
that we would never have
been able to do in the field.
Because in the
field, we would have
closed the old one by the time
we were digging the other one.
You see?
So we can calculate any
distance between any points.
This is the distance that
is the length that is
proposed by the program, 9.04.
We resize the whole thing, and
now we know that it's 4.23.
So we re-sized everything based
on one single measurement,
and immediately the
entire model is re-sized,
allowing us to now measure
distances between points
that we have not
measured before.
So some things that
are really interesting.
Or we can turn it on the side
to measure the definitive depth
of that excavation unit there.
Si?
In the field you
might have done it,
but you might have
done it wrong.
So you want to come back and
do it again and check it out
with this type of device.
Now, if we want to do site,
now we're going to need drones.
So now we're going to go
back into the drone business.
What about-- we
have been looking
at artifacts and contexts,
burials and things like that.
What about sites?
No?
These is changing so fast
that only two weeks ago I
ran into this
program that allows
us to do full-controlled
flights with great precision.
We are going to be
flying this are here.
We set up the coordinates in
a Google Earth kind of base.
And it's going to
tell us-- we're
going to need the
altitude, 300 meters.
It's going to tell us--
this is the front flap.
That means how much
overlapping there's
going to be between one
picture and the other one,
and the other one is a
site overlapping 70%.
So now we have this.
We run the model.
We go to the site,
turn on our device,
and it starts flying
and taking the pictures
exactly as if we told it in
this pre-programmed flight.
Now, the good thing about this
is that we, while doing this,
can actually exclude
areas that are dangerous,
no-flight zones like airports.
So what is going to
happen in the near future,
hopefully, is that we will
be using these devices more
to control, and actually
have the capacity
to predict what is
going to happen.
Here you have all the
pictures that we're
taking to produce
that orthophoto there.
And here you have the
three-dimensional model
of the same thing.
So we have plenty of pictures.
We're going to go
back to the sites.
We're going to start flying.
We're going to produce these
clouds of points, of dots.
And once we have them, we want
to start modelling our sites
in ways that are really unique.
This is actually an
archaeological site
called Inca Wasi in Peru
after we have flown around it
and produced the model
that you see here.
No?
The flying looks a
little bit unorganized,
but it's exactly
what you need to do.
It looks like if it was done
at random, but it's not.
It's actually exactly what
you want it to do in order
to get this kind of resolution.
And all of these pictures you
see here are not pictures.
They are
three-dimensional models.
See?
The height, I mean
the elevation, no?
I mean the position of the
drone in regards to the site,
the angle of the
cameras, allow you
to get these incredible
quality of images
that we are getting there.
Every single stone, down to
a stone that is 1 centimeter,
is going to come up as a
three-dimensional picture.
I mean it's incredible.
These huacas in Peru,
exactly the same thing.
Now, can we go even bigger?
What about Machu Picchu?
This is the world-famous
Machu Picchu.
Let's see what we can do.
In Machu Picchu we
had a [INAUDIBLE]
meaning-- Machu Picchu is
guarded, I mean it's closed.
There was an incident some
years ago because a guy
went with the crane
and dropped it
on top of the Intihuatana,
the clock of the sun,
and actually broke a
little corner of it.
So Machu Picchu is
a very difficult--
to get the permit we had to call
the Vice Minister of Culture--
that was me.
[LAUGHTER] Knock knock.
And we actually flew over the
side because we wanted to see
what can we do with
this technique.
And voila.
That's Machu Picchu
in all its glory.
What can we use this for?
If we're going to
plan-- for instance,
when I was in the
Ministerio de Cultura
we were dealing with the
fact that Machu Picchu
is over crowded.
And it's crazy
crowded because people
want to go to Machu Picchu
early in the morning.
Everybody wants to get
there early in the morning.
They want to see the sun
coming up in Machu Picchu.
Impossible-- because the site
opens after the sun has come up
to begin with.
And then 99% of the days
Machu Picchu is cloudy
in the morning, so
it's impossible to see
the sun coming up.
No?
Nevertheless, people want to,
so we wanted to develop, I mean,
ways to handle the crowds of
people that want to come in,
that actually, I
mean, go to Machu
Picchu at the end of the world.
They have to arrive in
Lima, then to Cusco,
then by bus to Ollanta, then
by train-- no es cierto?--
to Aguas Calientes, then
take another bus, go up--
I mean it's a really
far away thing.
No?
So we cannot tell them no,
but we can control them.
And how do we control them?
We need to have a
model that allows
us to see a base upon
which we can define
where people are getting in.
And people are getting
in, we know, this way
because this is
where the hotel is.
If you enter Machu Picchu,
you come in this way.
So we could actually
use this not only
to define the routes that
are going to be used,
to look at
concentrations of people,
to study the people as
they are moving around.
This tool that we have
here, because it's a tool,
has been already used in the
planning of a couple of things.
One thing has been,
of course, tourism.
And the other has been fires.
We have a bigger
model of Machu Picchu,
we are concerned that one of
these days all of these brushes
here are going to
dry out, and a fire
is going to start killing
the people that are above.
So I mean-- and what the expert
in forest fires that actually
was hired by the
Ministerio de Cultura was--
do we have detailed maps?
Can we look at slopes?
Can we look at the wind?
Can we look at the projecture
of the wind into the mountain?
And for all of these
type of questions,
we required this type of
device that you have here.
So it's not only a beautiful
representation of the site.
It is much more than that.
Now if you look
carefully, you can
see that these green areas
in the center of Machu Picchu
are shaped like a
bird, an odd bird.
The head of the bird,
the body, the arms--
because in the Inca iconography,
birds have arms and legs.
So the arms extending here
and the legs extending here.
Bear with me.
I mean, I see the bird
there, and then the wings.
So we can see things
that are unbelievable.
Si?
We have been going out and
mapping these kinds of sites.
And by now, the Ministerio
de Cultura-- between them
and my laboratory in The
Catholic University--
we have already
mapped 1000 sites.
No?
1000 sites for which we
have detailed mapping that
is, hopefully, going to
help us run the sites,
monitor the sites, see that
the sites are not encroached,
and things like that.
So these are the kinds of things
that you can do using drones.
One more thing to finish this.
What is in store for the future?
Because the future is going to
be an intersection between all
of this and other
uses that we can
give to these types of
technology and these models.
We are doing it
now because if you
want to do a study of that
site in downtown Lima--
it's called
Huantinamerica-- what you're
going to get with Google Earth--
the best image that you're
going to get is
this one, and that's
exactly where the drones start.
No?
And for instance, here we have
a pink kite that was probably
left by some children
flying above the hauca,
but the hauca is
surrounded by walls,
so they couldn't come
in and rescue it.
So we know that there
is an object there
in the middle of the huaca.
And we can do much
more monitoring
and work with these
type of things,
but for that we need
to combine with it
these techniques--
air photography
and photogrammetry-- with
geographical information
systems and georeferencing.
And for that we not
only fly, but we
have to take other
kinds of instruments
that allow us to have the
most advanced precision
for the models and the
maps that we produce.
This is an equipment from
the Ministerio de Cultura.
This is a GPS that is good
up to a couple of millimeters
sometimes, depending on
the base that we have,
that allows us, with
great precision,
to geo-position
anything we find.
No?
And with this we can actually
run it in our models,
and put them and place in
geographical information
systems with great precision,
so that we can actually--
with these 1,000 sites that we
have already mapped in Peru,
and the thousands that we'll
be mapping in the next years--
we can start building
up a geographical atlas
of all the archaeological
sites in Peru.
These are tools
that are absolutely
necessary for any kind of
archaeological work, you see?
It saves us a lot of time.
It saves us a lot of opposition.
And once me have them, we
can start working with them,
and doing things that are
incredible like-- for instance,
all that topography that was
done before with hardware,
and hiring topographers
that are very expensive,
now we can do immediately
using these techniques.
I mean this is
another site in Lima
after it has been studied
and mapped and run
through the graphical
information systems.
So now we have not
only the pictures,
but we have these instruments
at full opposition.
And the same thing we
are doing in other sites,
to the point that we are running
three-dimensional models.
For instance, like you see here
with topographic lines in ways
that we didn't do before.
The program allows
you-- these programs
allow you to have
a precision that
is absolutely fantastic, down
to 1 centimeter in the terms
of [INAUDIBLE].
So you're not going to
hire a topographer anymore.
And if anybody's thinking
about doing topography,
I mean, buy a drone because--
Now, what else?
I mean, if we take the
cameras and we look down
using, for instance,
[INAUDIBLE].
We have a mission that is
going to be running in a month,
also in Machu Picchu,
by Professor Fletcher
from the University of Sydney.
Professor Fletcher has been
flying his gliders [INAUDIBLE]
basically the same stuff.
No?
But if you look at [INAUDIBLE]
through the lens of a lighter,
this is what you see.
And what you see is that
the canopy disappears,
and what you're seeing is the
real texture of the soil below.
There are other people-- no.
The [INAUDIBLE] are doing
this in the Caracol.
I mean-- but the
interesting thing
is that all these
techniques are changing.
This is a lighter
that can fit a drone,
and Parker was telling
me that you already
have one of these here.
Well, the cheapest one is
this one, a French one,
that is two and a
half kilos, that you
can fly in a small sized,
or medium sized drone,
and it's going to produce
something like this.
These types of technologies
have applications
that are immediate.
Two years ago we had
an incident in Peru
while The Cup was
running in Lima.
We had Greenpeace running
an ad for their ideas
next to this
hummingbird in Nazca.
And the problem was that
once the people in Greenpeace
had walked into this
area that is basically--
I mean nobody walks in.
It's completely forbidden.
No?
We had to assess the damage.
And in order to
assess the damage that
had been caused by the
intrusion of Greenpeace,
we could have been
walking on top of the site
and inflicting more
damage to the site,
or we could have
flown the drones
and produced with the drones
the kind of information
you see here.
So we sent out
the drones, and it
was interesting because flying
very low they produce really
detailed representations.
Here you have the unite that
was produced with the drones,
now a little bit more worked.
These are the paths of the
pictures that were taken.
No?
And if we compare-- now
this is an image that
has been twisted a little bit.
And here we can compare the
old picture of the hummingbird
and the new picture of the
hummingbird, and basically,
most of the damage is in this
pathway here-- see that?--
and all those little steps here.
For a site like Palpa
and Nazca Lines are,
this is significant
because the time
that it's going to take for
this to go back to normal
is probably going to be
on the hundreds of years.
See?
All the other lines
that you see here
were caused by Maria
Reiche in the old days
when she was a
cleaning the lines.
Nobody has ever seen
there after that.
No?
Nobody is allowed, of course.
So here you can see the
damage that was done.
And we didn't have to go in.
We sent in the drone,
and the drones came back
and produced this information.
One thing that is
quite interesting
is that, when they came back
and produced this information,
we not only got the hummingbird
and the steps by the people
from Greenpeace, but
we also got this thing
that is showing up here.
Can you see that?
There are other lines
there that are older,
that have been there for so
long that they have probably
vanished.
And we knew that.
We knew that the Nazca Lines
are not unique in the sense
that there are other, older
lines below that have been
either erased or disappeared.
So now we see this
hand that show up
because we were flying there.
And with the advantage
point of flying above it,
we could see it
for the first time.
OK.
So basically this is it.
No?
And I think that the
possibilities are endless.
This is a technology.
This is not an end.
This is a means.
We will still be doing hard work
archeology, going to the field.
We need, still, to do that.
I mean, archeology's
not going to change.
We are not going to be
sitting down here in a desk
and sending our drones
to fly and dig for us.
That's not ever going to happen.
No?
But hopefully, we
will be able to use
these types of instruments
to achieve things
that we didn't achieve
before, to do things
that we-- to get to places
that we couldn't get before.
And the way things
are moving, we
are going to be changing not
only the cameras, the drones,
et cetera, we are going to be
getting places that we never
thought we would get before.
And we will be able to get a
record that is more complete,
and it is going to be used
for so many different things.
And archeology, and this
is not another thing,
that there is a whole
area of the different,
I mean, uses for drones
that is basically endless.
We need to regulate this.
Of course there are
concerns about privacy.
There are concerns
about security,
but any technology
has challenges.
We have to face them in
order to able to use them.
Because actually, and
I'm finishing with this,
the last time there was
an earthquake in Nepal
the drones were really useful.
We couldn't get to places.
You simply couldn't get-- And
if you go to, I mean, internet,
and Google for Nepal
and drones, you
will see that this little piece
of equipment saved the day,
and many lives in so doing.
Because we have them, and the
technology has been developed,
we need to go on and keep
on developing, not only
for the uses that we
have as archaeologists,
but I think for many
uses in our lives.
Thank you very much.
