Category Archives: Lidar/Imaging

BIM, a Basilica, and a Balloon

An award-winning digital twin project is interesting on many levels, and not just because it features one of the world’s most famous landmarks.  Shown above: The AI-driven camera-based solution Italferr developed to capture the upper dome and galleries. Source: Italferr Davide Porzio, CDE manager, BIM coordinator, Italferr S.P.A. speaks enthusiastically about building a  digital twin...

GoGeomatics Expo Puts Canada on the Geospatial Map

In the words of Will Cadell, “Geospatial is changing everything.”  That was not only one of the opening lines of a visionary talk by Cadell, founder and CEO of geospatial consultancy Sparkgeo, it seemed to capture the sentiment of exhibitors, speakers and attendees at GoGeomatics’ inaugural conference.  Held in Calgary, Alberta from Nov. 6 –...

Out of Sight; Not Out of Mind

Cities are now creating their own subsurface utility maps to manage their underground assets. But the lack of an open-based geospatial model means that data are often not interoperable. A new mapping standard aims to fix that. In the years since 2004 when a leaking gas pipeline exploded in Ghislenghien, an industrial town in Belgium,...

A Decade of Uncrewed Photogrammetry

Some might have had a peek at photogrammetry drones before 2013, but for me 2023 marks a decade since I first laid eyes on an uncrewed aircraft that “claimed” to do what I had been doing for years in bigger, more stable airplanes in the joyful company of pilots, copilots, camera operators, and navigators.  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,...