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3D Forensic Scans: Three civil applications

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In my travels along the 3D laser scanning superhighway, I’ve spent a lot of time talking to criminal forensic experts. This group was one of the earliest adopters of laser scanning technology and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting agents with the FBI, the Secret Service, and even generals and admirals who are familiar with its capabilities.

In my experience, the most advanced groups in the specific application of the technology to prevent and investigate crimes have been the Secret Service and Scotland Yard. Both have programs written specifically to analyze the data and use it proactively to protect kings, queens and presidents.

High definition scanning allows you to check every site line – not just one or two.

Our firm has worked on several “criminal” projects over the years – some supporting the prosecutors and their evidence and others supporting the defense teams and their clients. But we also work with the litigation and documentation of forensic evidence for civil or construction projects.

Many jobs require our expertise to go out and document the existing conditions of a site. We have literally traveled from Montana to Texas to Georgia working with clients on various cases.

Perhaps the most famous civil forensics projects were the scans used for analysis of the World Trade Center attacks and the Minneapolis bridge collapse. On both of these projects, the scan data after the destruction of the structures was used to determine exactly what caused the failure.

Obviously, in the World Trade Center, the initial impact of the plane created the fire ball and damage, but it was the fuel in the plane that heated up the beams in the structures and ultimately caused them to fail, each floor collapsing on the one below as the entire structure came down. The melted beams were documented with laser data.

Structural Integrity

One of our first projects was scanning a three story parking deck. During the initial walk around, we could tell that the deck – even though made of concrete – was warped and some of the columns were out of plumb. Other areas were cracked and stressed.

We produced plans and models with the data and structural engineers were able to determine that the structure was unsafe. Because of the density of the data sets, engineers were able to look at all surfaces rather than a few strategic spot shots before making their final determination.

By being able to look at the line of the vertical columns through the building, engineers could tell that the cost to fix the failing structure would be much larger than building new.

Large Vessel Analysis

We also had another project where we were asked to scan a large containment vessel that held various types of liquid depending on the product being produced or stored.

In this type of investigation, we were able to document that a certain vessel was out of plumb, warped or bent. This information was then used to determine if the vessel was safe and, if not, how and when to replace it before a failure occurred.

Settlement Monitoring

Being able to monitor when and how much something is settling is very important to a property owner. We recently worked on a very large project in the western United States that involved a large platform used for loading and unloading products.

In this case, one long section had settled much more that the specifications allowed and had begun leaning at a dangerous angle. The engineer showed me previous surveys and I asked him why they needed us if they already had survey data on the structure.

He explained how the parties involved were having difficulty understanding the traditional survey data and its implications.

Once we scanned the platform in 3D and modeled it, it was quite obvious to everyone how badly the shape of the original structure had changed, as well as the principal cause of the failure. This helped move the group discussion from, “There isn’t a problem,” to “How do we get this fixed?”

We have completed many other civil forensic projects for engineers ranging from dam failures to vertical wall failures and even construction slabs that were not level or flat. The common element in all of these projects was that the use of laser scanning technology was the perfect tool to document the conditions and the data was easy to interpret and model into a visual form that everyone could understand.

Forensic scanning of crime scenes will continue to grow, as will the 3D laser scanning of complicated civil projects. 3D laser survey data is becoming mainstream in analyzing the cause of catastrophic civil construction failures. If you know how something fell to the ground, you can usually tell what failed first.

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Tate Jones has over 40 years of experience in land and aerial surveying and was one of the country’s earliest adopters of 3D laser scanning technology. A nationally recognized expert in the field of 3D data capture, he has worked with hundreds of clients in the forensic engineering, law enforcement, criminal defense, architectural and construction industries. Contact him at tjones@3DForensicScans.com, a division of the LandAir Surveying company.

3D Laser Scanning: The New Industry Standard

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When we first started laser scanning back in 2005, we replaced some of our total station surveying equipment with high definition scanning technology. As much as anything, this was a great way for us to learn how to use the technology and understand its capabilities and limitations.

Early on, much of the work we did involved transportation projects and large complicated intersection surveys. There were many immediate benefits. For one, our surveyors were no longer put out into traffic and in harm’s way.

Another benefit was that we didn’t have to drive across town or across the state just to check on a few ambiguous points in a survey. Instead, we could just go back and look at the point cloud.

Today, in 2012, the entire scanning world has changed. In addition to the use of laser scanning in architectural and engineering design and construction, this technology is now regularly used by insurance companies and law enforcement agencies for crime scene and accident reconstruction.

While before we had to convince clients of the benefits of using laser surveys, we now have a growing client base that simply will not consider starting a project without one.

In addition to providing accurate spatial information to the forensic engineering, law enforcement, criminal defense, architectural and construction industries, laser scanning saves both time and money.

Here are four primary reasons 3D laser surveys, or high-definition scanning, is quickly becoming the new industry standard when it comes to making precise measurements in complicated environments:

Reason #1: Scanner Speed

The speed of scanning has changed dramatically compared to what it was just seven years ago.

The first scanner we purchased (and still use today) took one hour for a 360-degree spherical orbit. Today, with our current scanners, it takes just six minutes. This speed enables us to take many more scan set-ups than we used to take.

With our phase-based high speed scanner, we can now get 40 to 60 scans per day, which is very adequate to cover a large two-story mechanical room. To get the same amount of scans seven years ago would have taken a week.

In areas like these, it is the detail we look for, not the range. In extremely complicated areas, we make a set of scans on all sides.

Reason #2: Software Improvements

Improved software programming has also contributed to the widespread acceptance of high definition scanning technology.

I remember talking to clients back in 2005 and our message was something like this, “We will scan for you, then give you a 2D deliverable set of drawings that you can use to design your project.” When they would ask if they could use the point cloud in their design, our answer was always the same: “Yes, but you will have to buy $10,000 worth of software.”

As you can probably imagine, this was not an easy sell.

Fortunately, today Bentley, AutoCAD and Revit all have point cloud engines in them. The difference between an engine and a viewer is that we can now load a point cloud into an “engine” for a client and they can use the data in the design without having to purchase expensive “point cloud” software.

In fact, one of the takeaways from a scanning conference I recently attended was that all of the major software providers are moving to full 3D software design systems. They finally understand what we have known for years. Why would you survey in 3D, flatten the data to 2D, design in 2D then build in 3D? It just doesn’t make sense.

Reason #3: Clash Detection

This alone is worth the cost of a 3D laser survey.

Consider that if a project is modeled in the design phase, the completed final design – including the MEP systems, air handling systems, structural system and all of the architectural design – can be placed within the point cloud and clash detected. Anything that interferes with another system can be seen immediately and corrected before construction.

This is huge! What prudent engineer, designer or contractor would not want this advantage?  How important would this be to an owner?

Reason #4: TrueView or 360-Degree Spherical Photography

This technology has also improved quite a bit in the last seven years. When we first started scanning, we were fascinated with the fact that scanners could take photographs of the surrounding area, and then take that photographic data and overlay it with the scan data to make general measurements to the environment.

Unfortunately, back then the on-board camera was not as good as we had hoped and sometimes the pictures would come out octagonal and disjointed. As the process became more refined, we were able to mount a high resolution camera on the scanner and produce a crystal clear, color spherical photograph of the site.

This is a big step because it allows you to view a site from any scan set up. You can add text and information to the photographs and then e-mail a specific view to another agency across the country or across the world. (In this case, some of our clients pay for our scanning fees with their savings in plane tickets!) This tool also enables clients to look out from the center of every scan and saves lots of time and discussion as to what is or is not located in the area of interest.

High definition scanning has quickly evolved from an emerging technology to an industry best practice when it comes to complicated crime scenes and accident reconstructions. The investigation process, similar to the construction process, always includes many unknowns and the chance of errors is always high.

Why put yourself in the position of having to explain how an investigation was slowed down or compromised because a laser scan was not the foundation of the project?

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Tate Jones has over 40 years of experience in land and aerial surveying and was one of the country’s earliest adopters of 3D laser scanning technology. A nationally recognized expert in the field of 3D data capture, he has worked with hundreds of clients in the forensic engineering, law enforcement, criminal defense, architectural and construction industries. Contact him at tjones@3DForensicScans.com, a division of the LandAir Surveying company.

3D forensic scan helps Feds catch vandals of ancient American Indian temple

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The Nez Perce Indians of Idaho lived in the Pacific Northwest for many centuries before they bumped into Lewis and Clark in 1805. A peaceful tribe who lived mostly on the natural foods available in Idaho’s rivers, they probably never imagined they would one day use high definition scanning technology.

Fast-forward to February 2010.

In a small, little known rock shelter at a national park in Idaho, vandals used spray paint to deface ancient Nez Perce tribal pictographs, estimated to be some 2,500 years old. In addition to having both cultural and spiritual significance to the Nez Perce tribe, the rock shelter is located in a national park on federal land, which makes it a very serious crime.

Our firm, LandAir Surveying, worked with the Archaeological Damage Investigation and Assessment (ADIA), the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, and the FBI to assist in a federal investigation to prosecute the vandals and document the destruction.

This wasn’t your everyday survey.

Our crews packed up their gear and boarded a plane to Idaho. Then they rented a car and drove to an access point on the Snake River in Hells River Canyon, where a jet boat was waiting to take them to the crime scene. The ride down river was exciting and rigorous, and the drop-off point was a small piece of land in the middle of the wilderness.

The colors and materials used to create the ancient drawings made it very difficult to capture all of the detail in the pictographs. After multiple scans – using a combination of laser scanners and GPS – over two trips, our crew was able to collect enough data to create detailed images of the rock face, as well as the defaced pictographs themselves.

Once processed, the data was presented to the Nez Perce elders, many of whom were very angry as they were seeing the vandalism for the first time. When we returned, we created color drawings, digital files and spherical photography that was used to evaluate and document the damage.

But ultimately, just two years later, justice was theirs.

Two Idaho men were eventually arrested and prosecuted for willful injury or depredation of U.S. property and were sentenced this February to federal prison and fines of more than $33,000 each for defacing the pictographs. A third man is set for sentencing in June.

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Tate Jones has over 40 years of experience in land and aerial surveying and was one of the country’s earliest adopters of 3D laser scanning technology. A nationally recognized expert in the field of 3D data capture, he has worked with hundreds of clients in the forensic engineering, law enforcement, criminal defense, architectural and construction industries. Contact him at tjones@3DForensicScans.com, a division of the LandAir Surveying company.