We’re pleased to report registrations to SPAR 2010 increased almost 23% over last year. Here’s a list of the participating organizations from 32 countries — 19% of the attendees come from outside the US. More than 95% of the 150 respondents to our post-conference survey indicated they were satisfied or very satisfied with the event.
Dr. Allan Carswell, chairman, Optech Incorporated keynoted the conference with a discussion of LIDAR applications ranging from bathymetry to detecting snowfall on Mars. We were honored to award Carswell one of this year’s SPAR Distinguished Achievement Award; the other went to Quantapoint founder Eric Hoffman. Paul Feist and Keith Johnson detailed how the Albuquerque Police Department used 3D scanning to map a gruesome serial murder crime scene — walking my dog hasn’t been quite the same for me since that presentation. Paul Debevec wowed the audience with his keynote on measuring surface reflectance properties of human faces — think of the special effects in Avatar and you’ll get the idea. Debevec’s work points to the bright future for 3D imaging; the solution set goes way beyond capturing shape and dimensionality. Rajeev Kalamdani from Ford Motor Company delivered a thoughtful and compelling talk on how global manufacturing initiatives at Ford are enabled by 3D laser scanning and selective modeling. The morning session was capped by Bonnie Burnham, president and CEO of the World Monuments Fund who got us all thinking about harnessing 3D imaging tools, not only to preserve but communicate our cultural heritage.
Mobile scanning technologies featured prominently at this year’s conference. At one time, I stepped outside and counted 8 mobile data capture units parked adjacent to the exhibit area; a sizeable fraction of the US fleet. Inside, a rich presentation track focused on both the business and technology of mobile surveying and mapping starting with SPAR 2010’s inaugural mobile scanning boot camp led by Ray Mandli.
Drawing upon the resources of the SPAR 2010 Advisory Board, Tad Fry from Anheuser-Busch led a team that delivered two very popular 3D laser scanning bootcamps. Let me thank all 56 sponsors, exhibitors and associations for their enthusiastic support.
Most of the conference presentations are available for download (attendees only). We’ll have more details about the excellent content at SPAR 2010 in the coming weeks.
