FARO Technologies recently announced the launch of the FARO Blink, a new reality capture solution delivering quality visualization and streamlined workflows for designers, builders, surveyors, and operators. The Blink is a cost-effective, software-driven solution simplifying reality capture through easy data acquisition and automated insights.
The solution simplifies the process of data capture by offering real-time feedback through live tracking of the scanner location, ensuring a quality result without the need for intense training. The Sphere XG Digital Reality Platform then takes the data and automatically processes and registers the scans, leaving the user with a complete scan project containing high quality images and point clouds.
The Blink solution complements the existing product line by offering an easy-to- use solution with high photo quality, easy transportability, and data accuracy that is good enough for most AECO and geospatial applications, all at a more approachable price point. FARO can cater to a wide range of users by providing its online, automated workflow and allowing Blink users to utilize FARO Technologies’ offline workflows using the FARO SCENE desktop software for more advanced use cases.
FARO Blink captures HDR color scans in less than 30 s per position with a 3D point accuracy of 4 mm @ 10 m (0.16 in @ 32.8 ft). A dual on-axis HDR camera system with 25 MPx resolution provides 125 MPx raw image resolution. The Laser Class 1 scanner offers a 300° vertical / 360° horizontal FoV, a range of 0.5 m – 80 m (1.64 ft - 262.5 ft), and up to 50 MPts 3D points per scan.
FARO Blink utilizes the FARO Stream application which gives the user real-time previews of the scan data that has been collected, ensuring that everything is captured. Using the Stream app, the scanner is tracked in real time as it moves through the environment, which allows the user to know at all times where they are currently and where they have been already. With real-time analysis, the Stream app alerts the user when they have moved too far between scan locations and advises where the scanner should be moved to next.
Full data processing and registration tasks in Sphere XG takes additional time, but due to the cloud-based platform for these tasks, the user’s computer is not tied-up while it happens. FARO also has the ability to perform processing and registration in Sphere XG in a reduced amount of time compared to traditional desktop workflows. The Blink captures orthophotos, Point clouds, and 3D models can all be consumed within Sphere XG as well exported or downloaded to be used in a variety of different file formats for 3rd party software.
One differentiator of the FARO Blink is its award-winning design. The design of Blink is centralized around simplicity to ensure that it is approachable to newer scanner users. To that end, The Blink device itself has only one button and capture is guided by the Stream application. Making the entire solution user-friendly from capture to deliverable has been paramount.
