There's often talk in the industry about how useful lidar data can be. Sure, you collect the data for a specific purpose - a clash detection or topo - but then, hey, you've got it on hand should you have a measurement need or some other question down the line. I'm not sure how often this actually happens, as issues of access to the data and proper storage aren't always handled expertly, but the theory is good. And this week I actually found a great example of the theory put into action.

Baillie Windfarm Ltd was looking to site a windfarm at Baillie Hill, in County Caithness, Scotland, but was granted planning permission only with a number of conditions. One requirement was for improvement of public access to the Hill of Shebster and Cnoc Freicedain, which are both scheduled ancient monuments; and for improved interpretation of the cairns. Might they be able to do something for the local heritage as they went about their wind evaluations? Well, sure they could. 

So, in addition to flying the area with lidar to do a topo study for the purposes of their windfarm development, they also teamed with AOC Archaeology Group (they work with firms to manage historic-site-type hurdles), which helped them put together the very cool site A Window on Caithness' Past, a public resource that allows people to examine that lidar data and play amateur archaeologist, picking out old burial sites and the like from the terrain models they created. 

Here's a sample:

Go ahead and play with it here.

Sure, "access" could mean physical access to the locations. But, in this case, the public is being given digital access, which, in a way, is better. No longer do you actually have to be there to examine the cairns. Pretty cool, if you ask me (though I do see how it's not the same and the dangerous precedent this could set if digital access were to somehow be equated with physical access. These are public treasures, after all). 

The lidar was collected at seven points per meter, which allows for beautiful terrain models at high resolution. You can really zoom in. As they note on the site, you can even pick out individual sheep!

Sure, some of the videos are a little clumsily done - with text that's hard to read and features alluded to that aren't necessarily obvious - but it's a pretty good effort overall. I award high marks for creativity, at the very least. 

Hopefully, we'll see efforts similar to this as lidar is collected for all manner of developments. There could even be possibilities for revenue creation if the sites created by development firms become popular enough to make sponsorship an option.

But that's crass thinking: Free the data and the people will follow!

While 3D printers have been getting much of the attention from start-ups using Kickstarter, don't think the laser scanning community is sitting idly by. Two new desktop scanners hit the news last week, drawing attention right back to that data-capture starting point in the scan-to-print workflow that's capturing the public's imagination. 

Of course, desktop and close-range scanners have been around for a good while now. Probably most well known is the NextEngine scanner, who tout themselves as the "#1 selling 3D scanner." Starting at $3,000, it's a relatively affordable way to get into 3D laser scanning of small objects like archaeological artifacts or machine parts you'd like to reverse engineer. Then there is the popular the David scanner, which you can buy as a "starter kit" for €450 or as a structured light scanner that comes in just under €2,000. David has done some great work in laser scanning, and inspired plenty of "makers" like this guy, but the "kit" nature of their solution has likely turned a few people off, even if the price is right. 

Both of these are still considerably cheaper than the handheld scanners they most often would compete against: Even Artec, which pitches itself as a cheaper alternative to the Creaform solution, is at least $13,500 in the United States. 

So, I'd say this Kickstarter project from CADScan is something of a game-changer: If you get it right now, you can get a professional, fully assembled desktop scanner for £649. The makers say they've designed it to be low-cost and "as simple to use as a photocopier," with no post-processing and instant mesh. No point cloud to deal with if you rather not.

Here's the full pitch (if you're using Internet Explorer this probably won't show up. Get a modern browser):

Now, it's not the overnight success that the 3D printing pen (aka glorified glue gun) is, and is only about three quarters to the £80,000 goal, but there are 22 days to goal and I'm pretty sure they'll be funded. The thing holding them back might be the sample data they supply. 

Here, check out their scanned dragon (this time, IE will really let you down; you need a browser that supports HTML5, like, well, anything except IE):

Click on that little box and you should be able to play with the model in 3D. Looks a little rough around the edges, doesn't it? I mean, it's fine for printing out toys for kids to play with, I guess, but it doesn't seem quick sub-milimeter enough for true reverse engineering applications. Maybe the toy, with its rough surface, isn't the best test piece. It's hard to say. 

Regardless, the price is right. Who knows what it will eventually retail for, but it seems safe to say it's under the David structured light price. I expect there are plenty of people in design and manufacturing who will find that attractive, even if the scan area is fairly small. If they can deliver on all the usability promises, it seems like a no brainer. 

But maybe you've got some of that DIY spirit and you don't mind the whole kit thing. Well, then you'll probably be pretty intrigued by the Moedls iPhone app that's currently under review at iTunes. Essentially, for about $300, you'll be able to conduct desktop scanning with nothing but your phone, a rotating turntable, and a line laser. It works like this:

It's part of Engadget's "Insert Coin" contest entries, and has made the semifinals. They're the only data-capture folks in the list of 10 remaining entries, so maybe you should give them a vote (if you don't mind logging in via Twitter or Facebook to do it, which is lame...).

Are either of these solutions from SCANCad or Moedls likely to fit perfectly into the average surveyor's or plant operations manager's or architect's workflow? Probably not. But it shows that R&D is happening in the laser scanning arena and that's bound to reduce prices in the traditional data capture realm as well if things keep moving in this direction. 

You guys know what "bling" is? I'm guessing so. It's all that jewelry and nonsense that rappers put on (even capping their teeth with diamonds) and it kind of became a thing. At least here in the United States. Could the music industry create a similar boom for 3D data capture?

Hard to believe, I know, but see if you can stomach the video for this new song from will.i.am (of the Black Eyed Peas) and Britney Spears (of, well, a decade ago):

Did you get far enough to notice the 3D printer printing out will.i.am's head? Ok, probably not. I understand that the song is an abomination (although I sort of like the "oh wee oh wee oh wee oh" part). But the part you care about looked like this:

See, will.i.am and Britney are showing how cool they are by showing us the technology they're down with. You see and iPad with the cool typewriter keyboard link up, an iPod underwater, a robot hand, even the latest digital camera hanging from one of the dancer's necks ACTING AS bling. Well, all of that plus a Lamborghini. And a bunch of gold chains. 

But the important part is that you can't make will.i.am's head print out without scanning it first. Or using photogrammetry of some sort, but it looks like a scan to me.

In fact, major music industry commentators have noted that tech has supplanted music as the place where all the envelope-pushers go. As the music is increasingly created with digital tools like MPC players and just plain software, it only makes sense. It used to be that tech rode music's coattails, but now it's starting to be the other way around. Musicians want to ride the latest tech, the apps and gadgets that fascinate us nowadays.

And one of those gadgets is a laser scanner. 

Get used to it. You're cool. But you knew that.

There's been a great deal of interest in how the newest photogrammetry software, creating point clouds and 3D models from digital photographs, compares with traditional laser scanning. In general, the verdict from industry long-timers is that the two technologies are mostly complementary. It's not an either/or discussion. Except when it is. 

I'm confident the entertainment and gaming marketplace has big potential for 3D data capture to really impact it, and so I try to stay on top of the FX web sites. Still, I was surprised to see the photogrammetry/lidar discussion play out so starkly in this article about the CGI used for the movie Lincoln. 

See, essentially, they were using the Virginia Capitol building (please ignore that the linked article doesn't know the difference between "capital" and "capitol") in place of the federal Capitol building in Washington. Their fronts look the same, and so it was much easier to film in Richmond and have live shots of Lincoln giving his second inaugural address there, rather than in Washington, where there would be many more security hassles, etc. That meant CG extensions to make the Virginia building become the Washington building. 

And for that, they used photogrammetry. This is Lincoln visual effects supervisor Ben Morris and CG supervisor Mark Wilson talking about it:

Well, yeah, that would be the benefit, wouldn't it. Also the fact that you don't have to have a $40,000+ laser scanner on hand. (I also really like that "historically, lidar has played a big part in everyone's lives," when, of course, lidar has only really existed for about 15 years. I mean, historically, the iPad has been really fun to play with, right?)

Now, no one's saying that computer graphics for movies represents a massive part of the laser scanning market, but it's something, and here's a very real case where photogrammetry and software has taken lidar's place. Is this a sign of things to come? Or is it actually an example of how complementary the two technologies really are? Really, lidar was overkill, wasn't it? Photogrammetry in this case - where you're only needing imagery, and 2D imagery at that, when it comes down to it - is the appropriate technology and makes 3D data capture both affordable and practical. 

If that increases the use of 3D data capture in general, that makes it only more likely that professionals dabbling in photogrammetry will eventually turn to laser scanning for more exacting jobs where precision matters, or maybe light isn't available. 

You all heard it, right? Here's what U.S. President Obama said in his State of the Union address last night: "Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything."

You'll remember we wrote about that facility back in August. Oh, and back in 2008. And just to be clear: There is no way we can see significant growth in 3D printing without a significant growth in 3D data capture. It's why 3D Systems bought Rapidform and is buying Geomagic and it's why a data capture evangelist like Michael Raphael at Direct Dimensions is cozying up with Bre Pettis at MakerBot and it's why Ping Fu, who founded a software company that works with captured data, keeps getting interviewed about 3D printing.

Sure, 3D printing gets the press because it's sexier and produces something tangible and people are still scared of computers and it looks like the Jetsons, but data capture is what's going to drive the 3D printing industry. I'm quite sure of that.

So that's why it's great to hear the president say things like:

You'll remember that the Department of Defense invested $69 million in that Youngstown facility. I'm guessing we're talking about similar cash outlays for these other 14 hubs. The total spend on that wouldn't be far from the current size of the entire data capture market in the United States.

(Oh, and if you don't think the markets pay attention to what the president has to say, please note that shares in 3D Systems and Stratasys jumped today after last night's mention.)

But those of you out there in the field doing the laser scanning need to speak up and make your voices heard. Make sure there's money going to capture R&D as much to print R&D. Make sure you're collaborating on workflow with those in the printing field. 

Along the way, it would be nice, too, if everyone remembered to keep the business case and why anyone would actually want to do these things in mind. Don't let it be a bubble like 3D printing has been in the past. 

I'm not one to tell you "I told you so," so I'll just say I'm happy to see that Woolpert has been profiled with a nice story in the Dayton paper about how their mobile lidar technology is helping with the Sandy clean-up effort. As I predicted would happen. 

Sorry. I can't help myself sometimes. 

Anyway, Woolpert is "taking part in a Rutgers University project to collect 3D visual data of hurricane-ravaged areas using geospatial mapping technology ... [and that data] will be used as a resource to identify damaged objects and plan the reconstruction."

Could you just drive through the actual affected areas and identify damaged objects? Obviously. But I can see how it would be much more efficient to identify them all in the comfort of an office, which would allow you to database them much more quickly. 

However, I might quibble with this statement: 

I mean: Ahem (2006, Katrina). And, even if you allow he only means mobile lidar technology, well, further ahem (2011, Japan). 

But let's not quibble. Woolpert are to be commended for doing the scanning at cost and helping with the clean-up and restoration effort. There's no doubt that valuable information can be gleaned from contrasting where structures wound up vs. where they actually used to be. There ought to be all manner of engineering lessons learned there that can inform future building and architecture efforts. 

Further, kudos to their PR team. The article is a great education effort for the industry as a whole, with a thorough description of the technology for the layman and a description of its overall practical applications. 

And there are plenty of people still hurting down there in the New York/New Jersey area. Let's hope this helps them get back on their feet a little quicker.

Okay, actually, I didn't see anyone trying to laser scan in the snow, but it's been the topic of conversation up this way in Maine, so I thought I'd give you guys a peek at what we experienced.

Portland set a record for snowfall from a single storm, with over 31 inches (it was 27 inches, previously), but up in Gray, where I live, it was more like 22-24 inches. Still, pretty impressive. 

Here's how it started on Friday:

Honestly, at this point, I thought it was going to be another storm where all the weather folks wig out while wearing their Storm Center sweaters, but nothing actually happens. That happens all the time. We get so much snow, the Storm Center folks are celebrities. A local rapper even did a spot for them I quite like. Check it out:

But, overnight, things got nasty. This is what I woke up to on Saturday morning:

Yes, that snow ridge is well over the picnic table. The wind was howling. This is how my front door wound up:

But what's really crazy is that this was pretty much no big deal. We've got some serious snow-handling equipment here in Maine. By Sunday morning, I was driving 60 mph on back roads up to the local mountain to ski some crazy powder, and this morning I rolled into work five minutes early. No problem. But, as you can see, it might take a while before we lose the reminders of the storm. These snowbanks are immense:

Maybe we should scan them for posterity...

You'll remember my story from a couple weeks back about the kids at Hot Springs High and their work with laser scanning underground. Well, their project just won $40k from Samsung, and they've got a shot at $110k more. But they need your help. 

They've already beaten out 1,585 other entries to become a finalist in Samsung's Solve for Tomorrow contest, which encourages high schoolers to use technology to solve problems (a good idea, in general). Now, the 15 finalists go head to head in one of those public-voting deals, whereby there are 15 videos describing the finalists' projects and you've got to vote for theirs. 

So go vote. Right here. 

(Caveat: The voting process is particularly annoying. You've got to give them first name/last name/email address/zip code, then you've got to verify your email address in your inbox. Then you can vote. Once a day only. Annoying.)

Too wary of Samsung's spam bots to get your vote on? Well, at least watch the Hot Springs video and check out what they're up to:

Yes, start-ups do still get funding the old-fashioned way (begging is popular, I think), but it's now becoming more common for tech firms to go the route of crowd-funding for cash to ramp up operations and 3D-related firms are starting to pop up all over the place there.

The most intriguing one this week is a company called Lynx Laboratories, which is pitching its Lynx A Camera, what they're billing as "the world's first point-and-shoot 3D camera." Whether or not my phone loaded with 123D Catch counts as a "point-and-shoot 3D camera" notwithstanding, they've got a pretty interesting pitch:

Personally, I haven't found a problem with battery life on digital cameras and "costly storage" is pretty a relative term when you can get 32 gig SD cards for $25 and I'm not sure why're they're comparing this with a conventional camera anyway, but I think that's beside the point. Basically, they've developed a completely self-contained scan-to-model camera that you can buy as part of this campaign for $1,999 (Interesting question: Do you have to pay sales tax if you "buy" something through Kickstarter? Technically you're being rewarded for your pledge. Is this a loophole?).

That's pretty hot.

Already, they've raised $36,187 of the $50k they fund at, and there are 41 days to go, so I'm assuming they'll hit their mark and then some. And why not? While we don't have any good idea of accuracy, there's nothing on the market like this all in one package. No laptop required here. Of course, that's the rub. The accuracy. The results they have as examples on the site are hardly engineering-quality. Are they even good enough for video games? Well, the cool piece there is that they sell a version that comes with motion-capture capabilities. Now THAT could prove useful, considering the way they do motion capture nowadays, with those suits and markers and what not. 

Motion capture with no markers and no post-processing? Someone's got to be into that. 

You can watch the full video of their pitch here:

Also of note this week is the DeltaMaker, yet another 3D printer (hopefully, they won't get sued by 3D Systems the way FormLabs has been). If you get in right now, you can grab one for $1,399, but it looks like they'll eventually sell for $1,600+. 

The pitch here is a combination of form and function. They say it's faster than other extrusion printers for the desktop, but they also try to sell just how pretty it is to watch it work. And, yeah, I guess it does look pretty cool, but I think this might be something of a stretch: "We see DeltaMakers prominently displayed in your living room, as your guests watch a reproduction of Venus de Milo arise over the course of a dinner party."

One thing that's actually really cool about this project is that it incorporates two pieces of technology that, themselves, started as Kickstarter projects, the linear bearing systems and the extrusion head. It's meta-Kickstarter!

And, in case you're wondering which is hotter, scanning or printing, know that this project is already at $95k, on its way to $107k as a goal, with 24 days to go. We'll see which of these projects has the greater momentum. 

For the full details on the DeltaMaker, check the video:

There are no doubt plenty of altruistic reasons for scanning and documenting historically significant locations and objects: They are preserved for posterity; should harm come to them, they could possibly be recreated; by better knowing our history we are better able to improve in the future. But there is also the fact that the resulting point clouds and models are really cool to look at and play with.

That's one of the reasons I loved CyArk's collaboration with Zynga, and why I'm attracted to the cant of a new organization, the ArkHive, launching formally on Friday but live now, dedicated to laser scanning the UK's (and elsewhere's) historically significant sites. "ArkHive is an enthusiasts organisation," the web site says by way of introduction. "The overall vision is to enable everybody to experience the key sites of cultural significance in the development of the human race and ignite the enthusiasm required to understand the past so that people are inspired to take the lessons and move forward."

Yes, enthusiasm. What is it about point clouds and 3D visualization that people respond to? Something unquantifiable, but undeniable. It excites the imagination. A sense of wonder. 

Founded initially by Andy Evans of Topcon and Nick Russill of Topcon dealer and service provider TerraDat, ArkHive has initially published four projects - St. Lythans Burial Chamber, Pen y Wyrlod, Trafalgar Square, and the Island Farm WW2 Escape Tunnel - and has plans in the works for another half dozen. Membership is free, though you need to ask for membership and be approved, and it is technically an unincorporated association, which means they can't do anything as a legal entity or formally raise money or apply for grants or anything. 

Initially, it sounds a lot like a Ham Radio operators club or something. Which is kind of cool, if you ask me. Contributions come in the form of scans or invitations to scan. You can read "the rules" here if you so choose.

In the meantime, check out what they've got posted. I've already learned something, personally. That Island Farm escape tunnel is the site of the largest escape of German PoWs during WW2, when, on March 10, 1945, 72 of them tunnelled to freedome from Camp 198 in Bridgend, South Wales. A little extra research turns up that they were all recaptured by March 16, but I can't believe this hasn't been a movie yet - imagine those five days in the local area, with German soldiers hiding out in every nook and cranny and apparently even children helping root them out. Crazy. 

And here's a great fly through to help stir that imagination further (if you're using crap IE for a browser, it probably won't work):

Where is the ArkHive eventually headed? We'll find out. But, in the meantime, cheers to another effort to get laser scanning out in front of the masses and do a little good work along the way.