Late last week Griner and Schmitz decided to have a "teach-the-new-guy" session utilizing the new Topcon GLS-1000 Laser Scanner. As a recent college grad this technology is all new to me. I owe a thank you to Terry Gammill, G&S Sales Manager, for taking time out of his busy day and showing me the ropes. 

The looming question going into this process is: What can we use this point cloud data for?

The actual scan was a relatively simple process. To begin, we had to get a lay of the land and figure out some of the basics such as where would we set up, how far away from the statue we were, how high of an angle are were shooting at, etc., then we were ready to start the process. 

From points '1' and '2', it only took roughly 8-10 minutes to scan at 30,000 points/second. Scanning from point '3' took slightly longer only because that point was at a distance nearly twice as far away, and thus there was that much more data to be collected. 

Despite meeting a local painter who had been painstakingly working on his recreation of the city skyline for several months, the actual scanning process was a relatively simple and uneventful process. The real magic happened one we uploaded the data into the computer.

It only took several clicks for us to find that Scout is 9.3' tall, the rock base 8.3' tall, the horse is 9.46' long, his feather has a length of 1.07', and the bow and arrow is 5.4' long. We even calculated that the man on top of the horse has a head with a circumference of 3.026', which would mean that he would probably not be able to find a Kansas City Royals hat that fit him very easily. All of these measurements were very easy to find once we uploaded the data. 

Although this project was performed mainly to illustrate the process of how a scan is orchestrated, we couldn't help but to come up with some other thoughts about what this data could be used for. After a few brainstorming sessions, we came up with an array of ideas:

• Historical reference
  
• In the event of a natural disaster, this statue could be recreated exactly to spec using the data collected
• Creating miniature replicas
• Virtual tours
• Digital renderings of modifications/restorations
• Adding new elements

The main lesson I learned from this process is that scanning provides vasts amounts of data especially for dynamic or hard-to-reach places. A Laser Scanner can save a lot of time and money if used for the correct applications. Since the data can be accessed at any time it easy to pull information in case modifications are needed. The point-cloud combined with the built-in camera can make it easy to get new elements crafted to fit snugly into place.

Scanning the statue was an interesting process and a good learning experience for someone new to these types of projects. It was surprising how easy the equipment and the software made the process and easy it was to derive measurements.

Scanning can definitely be a very useful tool for a variety of applications... what could you use it for?