I’d been kind of under the impression that laser scanning underwater was pretty close to impossible. I assumed the water would make the laser, like most light going through it, go all higgelly-piggelly (that’s a technical term). Apparently I was at least partially wrong.
Today I ran across this release from Newton Labs about an underwater laser scanner designed for the nuclear environment. I’ll let them explain.
The device, the NM200UW Nuclear Underwater Laser Scanner , designed in partnership with a major U.S. nuclear utility, produces a point cloud output so detailed that when utilized with industry standard three-dimensional software a full measurable CAD model can be generated.
You can see a slide-show demonstration of the scanner here.
Obviously, there’s a need for accurate documentation in a place where only video cameras can see at the moment, and in a place where no sane human being would ever put themselves physically. I’m going to give them a call to learn more.
