andmaybegayer:

3D space scanning is wild

At work we use a service called Matterport, which lets you take a high resolution spherical camera and laser ranging system into a space and map it out as a 3D model that you can virtually walk around in. You can tag things too, so you can say “proposed device installation site” or “manager’s desk” or “8-basket deep-fryer” (we mostly work with fast food places at the moment).

I obviously can’t show you a work site but here’s a publicly available scan of the TACC supercomputer, which I visited a couple years back. You can get a pretty good sense of the space, even take measurements, which I’ve used to say “oh we need a 30m cable to connect this sensor to the sensor hub.” which is way more convenient than having to terminate cables on site.

Explore TACC Data Center in 3D

I went to a site I have never been to on Saturday, but I had walked through it on my computer and it was /weird/. I knew where everything was, and I knew what all the things were. Came in the side door, turned towards the store room, felt as though I’d been there a dozen times. Didn’t have to ask anyone “hey do you know where that thing we installed is set up?” because it was all tagged in the model. Extremely strange sensation.

I can imagine something like this being very useful for hazardous work training and preparation, especially if you coupled it with some VR bullshit.

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#proud citizen of The Future