Tag Archives: scanning

With friends like these, who needs consumer reviews? 

By Matt Kowalski  Likely, everyone can agree that we prefer to make informed decisions when spending our hard-earned money. If it is a car, computer, or the pen that I used to write this you can find a consumer report about it.  Don’t believe me? Search “pen consumer report.” You will not only find Consumer...

Software is a Service

Transforming the Future with Reality Capture Software By Andreas Gerster  Compared to software, reality capture hardware has traditionally attracted the lion’s share of attention. Lasers, robots, cameras, and UAVs breathe modernity and innovation. They are market disruptors, make for impressive photographs, and they are tangible. Ultimately, they are the very essence of the future.   In...

Autonomous Drone Mapping

How interior spaces like mines are being scanned and imaged by a drone that works without a pilot or connectivity.  There is a scene in the Ridley Scott-directed 2012 sci-fi thriller “Prometheus” where a deep space exploration crew lands on a planet and discovers an underground labyrinth. They lob a levitating orb down a tunnel,...

Bridge Watchers

Smart sensors and satellites are being used to actively monitor bridges and large infrastructures. With eyes in the sky and ears on the ground, can this new technology improve public safety? Despite what the lyrics of the popular English nursery rhyme may have our young ones believe, the London Bridge has actually never fallen down.  ...

Built for Danger

While the operator stays safe, indoor drones carrying lidar and SLAM technology create a 3D map of the inside of hazardous spaces Nuclear power plants, ballast tanks, underground mines, toxic chemical plants, sewers, offshore oil storage, decommissioned industrial facilities—none of these are places suitable for humans; yet monitoring and inspection of the interiors are often...