By Patricia Daukantas

What do lasers have to do with Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham? They turn out to have a rather “deep” connection, if you’ll pardon the pun.

The University of Nottingham – yes, that Nottingham – has begun to survey the hundreds of sandstone caves under the English city with laser-scanning equipment. One of those caves is believed to be the dungeon in which the Sheriff of Nottingham imprisoned Robin Hood (if, of course, you believe that the do-gooding outlaw actually existed in medieval times).

The British Geological Survey mapped the caves in the 1980s, but Nottingham officials would like to use the laser-scanning data to create virtual representations of the caves to increase their tourist potential. In other words, visitors would be able to explore the caves without experiencing the associated “health and safety issues,” as the BBC report put it.

The Nottingham Caves Survey has its own website at which it explains the laser scanning procedure.

We’re all about to be inundated with everything “Robin Hood,” as the Ridley Scott movie by that name is readied for a debut next week. In this month of the laser’s 50^th anniversary, it’s interesting to contemplate the intersection of modern optical history with the legends of yore.

2010-05 May, Applied optics, Miscellaneous Optics, Optics and pop culture lasers, laser scanning, nottingham, robin hood, mapping, optical history