HOUSTON, TX March 18, 2010 Coign Asset Metrics & Technologies (CoignAMT), at the direction of Zoo Film Productions of Hollywood, CA, has helped produce IBM’s first globally released television commercial created entirely from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) 3D point cloud data.

CoignAMT used the HDS6100 phase-based laser scanner from Leica Geosystems to create scenes of cars on a freeway, patients in a hospital, electricity grids and much more. The 30-second LiDAR-based commercial is a key part of IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative to portray that data is all around; and that by changing the way the world thinks, companies can maximize the use of data to lower their costs and reduce environmental impact.

Travis Reinke, business sector manager for CoignAMT, says, “Coincidentally, IBM’s perspective is a core part of CoignAMT’s business practice. We help our clients see the long-term value of the data they currently have by using the latest technology, such as 3D laser scanning, to quickly gather an immense amount of data to support their existing “intelligent” systems.”

The Zoo Film Productions crew spent a week in Houston, TX with CoignAMT personnel capturing laser scan data of transmission lines and over 16 blocks of downtown Houston streetscape and surounding buildings. CoignAMT then merged the point cloud data gathered in downtown with 6 square miles of low-altitude helicopter-based LiDAR provided by Aerotec LLC out of Birmingham, AL. Zoo Film Productions crews also created numerous scenes of hospital activities as well as automobiles with and without drivers that CoignAMT scanned individually for use in the commercial.

Reinke continues, “We were honored to be part of this innovative project given the direct correlation between the services CoignAMT provides and IBM’s Smarter Planet initiatives. Using the latest laser scanning technology to visually portray the importance of the data surrounding us was an unforeseen irony. I would never have imagined that we would be using this technology to scan people and cars, objects that are often considered ‘noise’ on a typical inventory project.”

View IBM “Data Anthem” at 848×480: http://www.glossyinc.com/zoo/ibmdataanthem.html
Full credits and a selection of stills: http://www.glossyinc.com/ibmdacred.html
Follow CoignAMT on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CoignAMT
Follow Travis Reinke on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/HDLS

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cj6VtYpBI4

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About Coign Asset Metrics & Technologies LLC:
Coign Asset Metrics & Technologies, LLC (CoignAMT) is a HUBZone qualified, SBA certified, small business that provides a full range of asset management life cycle services and specialized technologies, including high definition laser scanning (HDLS). Its mission is to strengthen public and private sector organizations by aligning their assets and operational practices with their strategic initiatives. CoignAMT is headquartered in the Pittsburgh, PA area, with regional offices located in Colorado Springs, CO, and Houston, TX. Clients include federal, state, and local governments, as well as private sector customers in the construction, energy, transportation, manufacturing, and security industries.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., March 8, 2010 — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced it has begun offering a new, compact, energy-efficient camera that provides three-dimensional images for military and commercial applications.

Boeing Directed Energy Systems and wholly owned Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab have jointly developed the camera using their own research and development funding, and successfully tested it over the past two years by attaching it to mobile ground platforms and a Boeing AH-6 Little Bird helicopter. Equipped with advanced sensors that were developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory and transferred to Boeing under a teaming arrangement, the cube-shaped camera is one-third the size and uses one-tenth the power of most comparable 3-D imaging cameras.

“Our three-dimensional camera fits a lot of capability into a small package,” said Nasser Karam, vice president of Advanced Technology Products at Spectrolab. “Its compact design and modest power needs will allow it to be deployed on a wide range of platforms, including unmanned aerial and ground vehicles that don’t have much room or power to spare.”

The camera, which Boeing can customize for each customer, has many potential uses, including mapping terrain, tracking targets and seeing through foliage. To create a 3-D image, the camera fires a short pulse of laser light, then measures the pulse’s flight time to determine how far away each part of the camera’s field of view is.

“The camera combines cutting-edge sensor technology with Boeing’s advanced pointing and tracking solutions and real-time processing to provide our customers with highly integrated 3-D imaging payloads for ground, airborne or space-based applications,” said Joseph Paranto, Growth lead for Directed Energy Systems in Albuquerque.

Boeing is currently integrating the camera into compact 3-D imaging payloads on unmanned aerial vehicles and will be testing that capability this spring. The team will also add 3-D video capability to the camera soon to complement its existing still-image capability.

A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is one of the world’s largest defense, space and security businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world’s largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Defense, Space & Security is a $34 billion business with 68,000 employees worldwide.

Source: http://boeing.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1107

Presented by: Executives from Spar Point research, Pointools, and Bentley

Summary:On October 14, 2009, Bentley announced that it had signed a “Continuous Technology Transfer Agreement” to incorporate Pointools’ Vortex Engine in the Bentley Technology Platform to enable reuse of 3D laser scanned data. This webinar will include three different perspectives on this agreement. To see the future of 3D data integration and platform interoperability you have to attend this webinar.

What you can learn:

	Watch this eSeminar by chapter: These videos open directly into your media player. Watch session
	Resources:
E-mail this to a friend

Due to inclement weather in Washington D.C., I was not able to make it back to The Woodlands in time for the first day of SPAR 2010, but I sure do have a lot to share with you after day 2. Below are some highlights from the well-attended event:

Zebra Imaging – if you did not have a chance to see them in person, be sure to check out their website because they have developed a truly remarkable product. Zebra Imaging makes digitally-mastered, actively-animated, true-color, full-parallax holographic images. These holographic images are available in full color, or in monochrome (green). Zebra’s holographic images can be scaled to any size, large or small. By tiling together multiple tiles, it is possible to create large city maps, full sized cars, humans, and machinery. Check out a sample video of their technology here. Look for a full post about this technology after the conference.

Trimble Indoor Mobile Mapping Solution (TIMMS) – Simply put, this technology is full-dome mobile scanning for interior applications. The technology uses the same IMU-type technology as aerial LiDAR and mobile mapping, but without the GPS. You simply push a cart around a facility to capture detailed, accurate point cloud data without the hassles of registration. Monthly rentals are available or you can purchase the technology.

Z+F showed off a new digital camera attachment for the Imager 5006i/Leica HDS-6100. The camera mounts on top of the unit and integrates with the point cloud data through the use of their proprietary software. There are batch capabilities that allow application of the RGB values to be applied to multiple scans at once. These values are appended to the ZFS files without affecting the intensity values. It works flawlessly with the HDS6100, however, a hardware upgrade is needed in order to work with the HDS6000. The cameras can be purchased or leased from Z+F directly.

Velodyne Lidar Inc. showed off their real-time 360-degree LiDAR sensor. Velodyne’s sensor was used on the Radiohead House of Cards music video directed by James Frost and Zoo Film Productions for which I recently had the privilege of working with on a new project. More on that once the project has been released… it is big, real big! In the meantime, check out the results from the Radiohead project. It is guaranteed to amaze you!

Deke Smith gave a great presentation on the buildingSMART alliance and the National BIM Standard. Join at http://www.buildingsmartalliance.org. Download the Whole Building Design Guide at http://www.wbdg.org.

I regret that I was not able to attend the first day, but it has been great to see colleagues I have not seen in a while and catch up on some new technology. Look for more info to be posted tomorrow. Follow us on Twitter for real-time updates from the conference.

Leica Geosystems HDS has information a new long-range scanner posted on their product page. Check it out at http://hds.leica-geosystems.com/en/Leica-HDS4400_78316.htm

The Leica HDS4400 mine scanning system offers all the benefits of laser scanning in a convenient, easy-to-learn and highly productive package. It is long range High-Definition Surveying (HDS) for the mining industry.

The Leica HDS4400 mine scanning system offers all the benefits of laser scanning in a convenient, easy-to-learn and highly productive package. It’s long range High-Definition Surveying for the mining industry.

The complete system includes the Leica HDS4400 scanner, a rugged field controller, software and support for mine scanning from the global leader in laser scanning solutions.

The Leica HDS4400 offers users these advantages for long range, pulsed laser scanning:

• Long range scanning with up to 700 m range
• Integrated high-resolution digital camera for panoramic color images
• Removal battery pack
• 4400 points per second
• Rugged tablet PC for easy scan control and data visualization

Spar Point Research LLC has been acquired by Diversified Business Communications, a U.S.-based trade show, publishing and eMedia company headquartered in Portland, Maine.
Tom Greaves, founder of Spar Point Research, will join the Diversified management team as managing director of the Spar Point Group. “We are excited about the future growth opportunities for Spar Point Group as part of Diversified,” Greaves said. “Diversified is a leading media and trade show organization with global reach and a proven record of strengthening the industries it serves. Diversified’s resources will allow our team to expand our geographic reach more quickly and better serve the needs of users and suppliers of 3D imaging technologies worldwide.“

“Diversified is actively looking for opportunities to partner and acquire emerging industry franchises,” said Nancy Hasselback, president and CEO of Diversified Communications. “We see a tremendous opportunity for growth in 3D imaging technology.”

“The Spar Point Group products are a great addition to our portfolio,” commented Mike Lodato, group vice president, who will be responsible for the corporate leadership of the Spar Point Group portfolio. “I look forward to working with Tom and the rest of the team to expand this franchise and leverage his expertise.”

Spar Point Research LLC, a Massachusetts-based company, has organized SPAR conferences in the United States and Japan since 2003. SPAR 2010 will be held Feb. 8-10, 2010 in Houston, Texas, USA. SPAR 2010J will be held April 15-16, 2010 in Kawasaki, Japan. The company also publishes SparView, an electronic newsletter serving more than 12,000 readers from engineering, construction, manufacturing, law enforcement and security planning organizations worldwide.

Diversified Business Communications provides information and market access through trade exhibitions, magazine publishing and eMedia products on four continents. Diversified serves a number of industries including seafood, food service, natural and organic products, commercial marine, integrative health care, oil and gas, and business management. Diversified operates divisions in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India and the UK. For more information, visit www.divbusiness.com.

If you are anything like me, you would be perfectly fine with doing everything yourself… at least you think. I have a reality check for you, you can’t. I know, the last thing you want to hear when you are investing in new technology, like laser scanning, is the word “can’t”. Let me explain. About six years ago, I had the “solo” mindset, but as soon as work started piling up and everyone needed their projects done at the same time, I found myself making a lot of mistakes – mistakes that almost cost me some really good clients. This was a wake-up-call for me. I realized that the only way to truly be successful was to surround myself with the best and brightest talent that I could find. This is not to say that I couldn’t have made it on my own, but I have learned from experience that there is a much greater chance of success if you build a team and learn to work as a team.

Here are some simple pointers to remember:

• Proof Read Everything, then let someone else proof it before you send it out. As the creator of an email, proposal, Statement of Qualifications or any other minor/major document it is very easy for you to make some really simple, yet stupid mistakes.
• Surround Yourself with Talent – work as hard as you can and do as much as you can possibly do until the point where you can justify building your team. Once you get to that point, take your time to find the right person. Remember, it is equally important to find someone that is not only qualified, but can work well with a team. If they have a horrible personality, or no personality at all for that matter, then one defeats the other. Don’t waste your time. Move on to the next person. Remember, if you find someone who is reliable, trustworthy and has a good personality, you can train them how collect or process laser scan data. After all, the laser scanning sales people have been telling us for years that scanning is so easy a monkey could do it. I have been very fortunate to have found very talented individuals who didn’t have a clue what a point cloud was, but with a little bit of training have become some of the most talented individuals in the industry.
• Failure is OK – This one is tough and I struggle with it every single day. If things don’t work out, if you make a stupid mistake, it is okay. That failure will become a great learning experience that will eventually lead you to success. Just don’t be a loser – someone who gives up after they fail. “It’s not about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and get up and keep moving forward” – Rocky Balboa

By Guillermo X. Garcia - Express-News

Bexar County’s criminal investigators soon will have cutting-edge help as they comb through crime scenes: a 3-D, computerized laser scanning system.

County commissioners approved the $207,000 purchase Tuesday.

“This is state-of-the-art equipment,” said Jose Treviño, the Sheriff’s Office homicide supervisor. “This will provide much more accurate data, and much quicker, to investigators at the scene.”

The system, which will be operational by March, takes a 3-D electronic photograph that plots objects in a 360-degree scan.

The unit “will all but eliminate human error” when it comes to measuring and plotting crime scene evidence, Treviño said.

“Eliminating the human error means you’ll have much greater chance that evidence won’t be missed,” he added. “It also guarantees much more accuracy in documenting the evidence’s location.”

Law enforcement officials say they plan to use the tool to probe major incidents, such as bank robberies, homicides and large-scale traffic accidents.

The Leica Geosystems scanner the county is purchasing is similar to but newer than scanners used at Fort Hood to gather evidence in the shooting massacre that killed 13 people last month. A similar device also was used to reconstruct the Interstate 35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis in August 2007.

Under a regional contract, surrounding counties and municipalities also will have access to the equipment, said Sheriff Amadeo Ortiz.

In other business, the commissioners were briefed on a project that will allow county residents to electronically request and track work orders for repairs to roads, sidewalks, bridges, signs and drainage structures.

Once operational, residents can access the Public Works Citizens Request Portal to create an electronic work request. The system also will provide status reports on all pending projects on a given street or in a neighborhood, said County Engineer Renee Green.

She said the public will be able to access the program starting Jan. 4.

While waiting for my coffee at Starbucks this morning, I recognized one of the fathers from my son’s basketball league. We shook hands and started into what I knew needed to be a short conversation since we were both on a mission to get our coffee and get to the office. One always has a choice to make in these situations – keep the conversation focused on what each other have in common, or throw caution to the wind and go with something that always ends up being a lengthy, involved explanation. I chose, like I usually make the mistake of doing, the latter. I was interested in what he did for a living and where his office was, but I knew as soon as I started to ask the question that he would reciprocate with the same.

So there I was, trying to explain laser scanning to someone in the healthcare industry. After nine years, you would think that I would have this figured out, but I always seem to struggle with which route I am going to take. I chose to explain it as 3D pictures where each pixel has a three-dimensional coordinate. Looking back, I wish that I would have said that I do 3D mapping of top secret government projects… if I told you any more, I would have to… well, you know.

That said, it sparked my interest and I decided to open this up to all of you to see how you respond to similar inquiries. Take a couple of seconds and select your response in the poll on the right and let’s see what the results are.