Tools and analytics
Perhaps it is due to the resurgence in UAVs, but this community that has been excited about scanning technologies for so long is starting to remember the value that there is in photographic images too.
NCTech Imaging’s iSTAR 360 imaging system is now well established, enabling high-quality panoramic camera images to be easily captured for virtual tours or to improve the efficiency of projects that produce colourized laser scans. At SPAR 3D this year, NCTech has announced that it has developed a new software development kit (SDK) for measurement that “enables iSTAR users to take measurements from directly within a spherical image by combining a ‘stereo pair’ of iSTAR images”. Casting our mind back to the facilities manager needing to quickly validate what is known about a site, where laser scanned specifications are not required, reasonably accurate point-to-point measurements will be possible from within iSTAR panoramic images.
Also revisiting the value of regular photos for 3D reality capture are Bentley and their ContextCapture product line. While creating meshes from aerial images that represent digital elevation models might be ‘old hat’ to many of us; personally, I am excited to see the types of products that ContextCapture produces from terrestrial images such as the smartphone that a construction site’s Site Superintendent carries around in their pocket.
Given the proliferation of data capture devices that we have, a frequent topic in my writing is to encourage processes for quickly moving information from what is often complex and agnostic 3D imaging data into the workflows where our clients really need it. At SPAR3D 2016, Arithmetica will be launching Pointfuse V2. With the intent to enable designers and engineers to start their projects on the vector data structures that they are most familiar with rather than needing to interpret the original point cloud; Pointfuse V2 is a one-button data conversion tool for converting a 3D point cloud to a 3D vector model that can be easily manipulated in the software of the end-user’s choice.
Finally, an exhibitor who I am particularly looking forward to seeing for the first time at SPAR3D is SKUR. Point-in-polygon or point-to-point change detection is not new, but building these techniques to give domain specific information is. In an industry where we so often get excited by the capture technology first, what I like about the SKUR proposition is that it approaches the problem of defining the metrics and reporting deliverables first, before dropping in the 3D imaging analysis capabilities as a means to getting the results needed.