All posts by Geoffrey Jacobs
Life after the Little BLK360 Scanner’s Big Splash
Above: A “new-user” 1-person firm scanned this complex historic building in five hours with 75 set-ups of the BLK360 and created final drawings. Credit: Southwest Scanning. Almost everyone is familiar with splashy announcements of new products. For much of my career with Trimble and with Leica Geosystems, I personally drove many product introductions, so I’m tuned into...
Surveyors as Movie Makers
Above: Each virtual camera position needs to be properly oriented for what you want the viewer to see. Credit: Rodrigo Garcia. Opposite: The movie maker places several virtual camera positions to form a path for a fly-through effect on scan-based movies. Credit: Leica Geosystems. In my last Geodude article, I drew an analogy between surveyors...
Surveyors Are Like Musicians
Don’t underestimate the value of talent. All 26+ years that I worked in the geospatial industry were with survey instrument manufacturers (Trimble and Leica Geosystems, plus start-up Cyra Technologies). But it was only in the most recent years of my time in the laser scanning segment that a major realization hit me about the full...
TheGeoDude on The UESI Conference
I’ve attended a lot of conferences over the years. They’ve primarily been either surveying-focused or technology- (GPS, laser scanning, reality capture, CAD) focused. The recent Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute (UESI) conference, held April 22 to 24 in Pomona, California, was my first conference with a strong mix of civil engineers and surveyors; a show...
Laser Scanning for GIS and FM
On the surface, rich laser- scan data seems like a natural, valuable addition to GIS and facility management (FM) solutions—and to related operations and maintenance and asset-management capabilities. Much as the emergence of GPS in the 1990s helped drive GIS adoption and growth, the emergence of laser scanning also feels ready to aid GIS, FM,...
UAVs and Laser Screening: Friends of Foes
Some professionals predicted doom for terrestrial scanning right when inexpensive drones with calibrated cameras hit the market and new image processing software wowed audiences with cool 3D mesh models of statues. But how have things actually turned out? I recently interviewed key industry users and vendors who are deep into both technologies – here’s what...
