The Sydney Opera House is the latest historic building to become part of a hi-tec Scottish cataloguing project.

The Scottish Ten is a five year project which uses laser technology to create accurate, digital models of Scotland’s five UNESCO designated World Heritage Sites and five international ones in order to better conserve and manage them.

A laser is fired millions of times a second at the buildings and monuments to produce a record of each site which is down to a matter of millimetres.

The Opera House now joins Mount Rushmore in the US and the remote St Kilda ruins of Hirta.

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The project is being led by Historic Scotland the Glasgow School of Art.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop made the announcement at a digital conference in Edinburgh.

She said: "The Sydney Opera House is one of the most iconic buildings in the world and is a masterpiece of architecture and engineering.

"By bringing together Historic Scotland's deep understanding of heritage and the expertise in 3D visualisation at the Glasgow School of Art's Digital Design Studio, Scotland has created a world-leading digital documentation project in the Scottish Ten."

The announcement was made at the DigiDoc 2012, a conference based around advanced forms of digital media and data.

Tony Burke, Australian Heritage Minister, said: "The Australian government is delighted that the World Heritage listed Sydney Opera House is to be part of the Scottish Ten project.

"The Scottish Ten project will provide us and the Sydney Opera House Trust with extraordinary insights into one of our most well known buildings, and provide invaluable information and perhaps a new way of looking at the place."

(IT)