How is reality capture technology revolutionizing the construction and building inspection industries? How do professionals use tools like drones, terrestrial laser scanners, and mobile laser scanners to meet diverse project needs? What are the keys to successful implementation of this new technology?
These and other questions were addressed during the recent Geo Week News webinar "Reality Capture for As-Builts: Value Beyond the Scan." Moderated by Geo Week News Senior Content Manager Carla Lauter, the webinar featured a panel discussion with Ted Parisot, Co-founder of Helios Visions, Matt Kowalski, Co-founder of LiDAholics, and Logan McGuinness, VDC Manager at The Weitz Company.
During the event, the panelists talked about the importance of selecting the right tool for the job, understanding the wants and needs of clients, and engaging in continuous learning to stay current as the systems continue to evolve. They also addressed key issues such as developing effective workflows, finding new business opportunities using reality capture, and the ways asset owners and data capture professionals can collaborate to produce better project outcomes.
During the conversation, Kowalski talked about the early days of using reality capture and how the technology has changed and become more effective. “It was a struggle for a long time there. There weren't a whole lot of answers for the questions we had,” he said. “But that's what excites me about it—the building of something new and getting the workflow perfect and figuring it out.”
Talking about some of the value for reality capture on these projects, Parisot noted that often there are multiple avenues for value that arise at different time. "Some of these things, the light builb goes on for some of these folks that, 'Hey, maybe there's the initial use case for this, but then there's all of this other downstream value that's derived from this dataset.'"
Looking ahead, McGuinness said that automated systems and new technology will further enhance the value of reality capture in construction and building inspections. “I’m really excited to see automated layout be implemented on our job sites,” she stated, “I’m also really interested in the integration of all of this reality capture data and the advancements in Gaussian splats with gaming engines.”
