Category Archives: GNSS/Location Tech

Survey Says: Height of Mount Everest is Two Feet More

Since 1856 China and Nepal have argued over the actual height of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain that sits on the border between the two countries in the Himalaya Mountains. Until today (December 8, 2020), Nepal has measured Everest at 29,029 feet. That counts the ice cap on top of the actual height of...

The Early Days of 3D Scanning, Part 6

1998: Launching 3D Laser Scanning into the Market I had the good fortune to be deeply involved with a pioneering vendor of 3D laser scanners and point cloud software. As I consider where that technology is today – a multi-billion dollar per year industry, the valuable benefits it has delivered to so many organizations and...

A World War II Loran receiver

The Return of Loran

An obsolete WWII navigation system is making a comeback In the 1980s, I used Loran-C to navigate on sailing trips off the U.S. East Coast. It had an accuracy of a few hundred feet and required interpreting blue, magenta, black, and green lines that were overprinted on nautical charts.  The system was a modernized version, launched...

Working in the TBM access trench, a team uses a total station and handheld controller for automated measurement and data analysis.

Grand Surveying in Grand Paris

Advanced solutions for tunneling and monitoring keep Europe’s largest transportation expansion project on track All photos taken prior to introduction of COVID-19 distancing guidelines Paris is grand—and getting much grander. One of the most visited—and loved—cities in the world, The City of Light began the Grand Paris initiative in 2007 with the goal of keeping...

iPhone Pro 12 – Survey device??

There is a buzz on the underground, geospatial people are tweeting about lidar in the new iPhone 12 Pro. What really escalated it all was Matterport releasing a new scan app on the Apple store, it was then followed by a few geospatial people alluding to be able to scan cities and even map rooms...