Laser Scanning Historic Wooden Homes for Preservation

Recently our Preservation Specialist, Joe Nicoli, wrote a guest post for Baltimore Heritage about the work Direct Dimensions did on the "Two Sisters" historic wooden home in the Baltimore neighborhood of Fells Point. We're delighted to share that post here as well:

Over the winter, Bryan Blundell from Dell Corporation had approached Direct Dimensions with a project to completely laser scan the Two Sisters Houses in Fell’s Point. On a sunny afternoon in March, myself and another technician with Direct Dimensions took our laser scanning equipment down to Fell’s Point and in just 30 minutes created a perfectly accurate 3D digital model of the exterior of the property.

The Two Sisters

The Two Sisters are two of just a handful of remaining wooden houses in Baltimore’s Fell’s Point. These buildings were donated to the Preservation Society by the Dashiell-Marine family. The name, The Two Sisters, recognizes the efforts of the Dashiell sisters, Mary and Eleanor, to save these and other buildings in Fell’s Point. Since that time, the Society has worked steadily to develop a plan for the saving and utilization of these significant architectural examples of early life in Fell’s Point.

3D scanning is one of the many modern technologies that can be used to help reveal some of the secrets and stories that are part of these amazing structures. The scanning can provide a baseline documentation of the building’s current state, allowing the planning team to design necessary structural supports, and to also serve as a 3D, “as-built” blue print for documenting current conditions and future preservation efforts.

What is 3D scanning?

Laser scanning is the process of collecting millions of individual measurements using laser light. Think of a range finder. A laser beam leaves the scanner on a specific orientation and the time it takes to reflect off a surface and return to the scanner establishes the distance. This happens thousands of times per second. By moving the equipment to various positions and perspectives, an entire site can be “scanned” in 3D. Once the data is merged, the resulting “point cloud” can be used to create traditional drawings, 3D models, and virtual reconstructions & walkthroughs.



So far, Direct Dimensions has only scanned the exterior on Wolfe Street, and will complete the project with funds provided to The Preservation Society by an African American Heritage Preservation Program Grant from the Maryland Historical Trust. This initial scan effort is also valuable as an archived “3D snapshot”, a record of the state of the structure in the spring of 2013.

Make sure to visit Baltimore Heritage for more about preserving our fair city!

Rapid2013: Visit Direct Dimensions at Booth 326 for your ShapeShot

This week we're at the Rapid2013 Conference and Exposition and 3D Imaging Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Stop by booth 326 to get your ShapeShot!

Preview of "SuperScan" Travelling Exhibit

SuperScan: Digitizing the World, a traveling exhibit by Science Visualizations could be making its way to a museum near you in the near future.


Direct Dimensions is thrilled to be part of this incredible new exhibit. Check out  a sneak peek of SuperScan.

For more information on booking SuperScan contact
Krista Steele
E: krista@sciencevisualization.com
P: 858.829.9420

Video: As-Built BIM Models from 3D Scanning

Tis the Season: Conference Season

April showers might bring May flowers, but they also usher in the start of conference and event season for the 3D scanning and printing communities. This year we are already off to a busy start at Direct Dimensions!

Last week we attended the annual SPAR conference in Colorado where Direct Dimensions' President Michael Raphael gave a presentation entitled Crossing Over:  3D Scanning Smaller Scenes and Objects. The Forest and the Trees.  The discussion highlighted the set of tools, methods, and applications designed for ‘close-range’ 3D scanning and in particular their use as complimentary to the long-range scanning tools. If you didn't get a chance to see it, check by here in the next few weeks. We regularly post conference presentations to our YouTube and SlideShare channels.

Michael Raphael shows off 3D hologram created with the help of our ShapeShot facial capture system

This busy week finds us at 3 events in the New York and DC areas.

Monday and Tuesday you can find us at the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. Michael will be on a Lighting Talk Panel called Next Generation Market Makers at 4:45 on April 23.

Wednesday we'll be at the 3D/DC II event in Washington DC. This educational event allows you to experience the remarkable new 3D printing and scanning technologies in person.

To cap off a very busy two weeks, Mr. Raphael and our Preservation Specialist, Joseph Nicoli, will be be presenting a paper at the Association for Preservation Technology's annual symposium in DC (Friday April 26) on"3D Laser Scanning and Cultural Resource Management".

And those events were just for April! May contains the AAM Museum Show, June the Annual Rapid Show and 3D Imaging Conference and July has CMSC 2013. As usual we will be heavily involved with these events and we encourage you to attend them.

ShapeShot at ECAN Cancer Dancer Gala

Feel like seeing yourself in 3D, dancing the night away and being charitable? Then we have good news for you: this evening you can have your ShapeShot taken at the Esophageal Cancer Action Network's Cancer Dancer Gala.

This annual event will feature dinner, dancing, a silent auction (in which you can bid on a ShapeShot sitting and ShapeShot product), and the chance to be immortalized in 3D! Gala attendees can have their ShapeShot taken and view their 3D selves by logging into our (private and password protected) 3D viewing gallery.

The ShapeShot system quickly captures your image in 3D - just like a snapshot.

 Once logged into their individual accounts attendees can also visit our ShapeShot Marketplace where they can order various products personalized with their own faces. We've even created an ECAN specific product, partial proceeds of which will be donated to the Esophageal Cancer Action Network.

Your mug on a mug: the ShapeShot face mug is just one of the items that can be bid on or purchased in our ShapeShot Marketplace

 This is a great event and we are very excited to be a part of it.

If you aren't attending the Cancer Dancer Gala but are interested in having your ShapeShot taken, please contact us, info@shapeshot.com

Heads of the State

Back in February we posted about an amazing event we attended (in conjunction with RMI of Maryland and the Towson University Object Lab) where we had the opportunity to 3D face scan the Maryland Legislature with our ShapeShot system. We spent the day scanning over 200 elected officials and staff, making the Maryland Legislature the first in the nation to have their heads 3D scanned. 

As of Friday, March 29th they are also the first in the nation to be 3D printed! Last week, Mike Galiazzo of RMI presented the legislators with the 3D printed versions of their heads, created from our ShapeShot data.

According to RMI, "The goal was to get legislators involved in promoting the new "face" of manufacturing and to learn about 3D scanning, designing and printing" and this event has definitely gotten our lawmakers excited about 3D scanning and rapid manufacturing/3D printing in Maryland! 

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3D Printing Continues to Grow 3D Scanning

3D Printing Continues to Grow 3D Scanning (or is it the other way around?) 

In this month's LiDAR news, Direct Dimensions' President Michael Raphael discusses the big news and changes in our industry:

The new year is starting out rather interesting as it relates to news and change in our 3D scanning industry.  We’re not even half way into March and it would not surprise me if we had more news about 3D scanning already this year than all of last year – which was already significantly more than the year prior.  What gives?  Why is 3D scanning making the headlines more often?  Certainly this is a good thing – more news means more interest and hopefully more business activity, which is what we all want for our 3D scanning world.  Let’s take a look at some of the more significant news items so far in this young year and see what is in common.

See this month's LiDAR news to read the rest of column. 

Scanning Snapshot: Surphaser Class Portrait

At Direct Dimensions we believe strongly in spreading the word about 3D scanning and imaging. For us this often takes the form of education. We often hold classes and demonstrations for college and high school students,  professional organizations, and sometimes even interested groups from the community.

The picture below is a "class picture" of a group of Towson University students taken with the Surphaser HSX Spherical Laser Scanner.

Project Snapshot: Scanning a Monumental Historic Sculpture

Direct Dimensions' digital modelers scan the 18 foot tall monumental sculpture, The Genius of Connecticut.

See more of the incredible projects we've worked on in our 3D scanning and imaging portfolio.