We are really excited about a new laser scanner being released by Leica Geosystems, the BLK360. It looks like a miniature R2D2, standing only 6.5″ high, and can easily be included with carry-on luggage for scanning on the go. They claim a range of 200 ft, but in our experience that usually means the practical usable range about 100 ft which is still more than adequate for most indoor scanning applications and even some outdoor ones. What is very interesting is that it supposedly comes with a thermal camera on board, which will make fore some fascinating 3D renderings of thermal imagery. It also sounds like they have paid a lot of attention to easing the process of registering the scans and getting them into a usable format. We’ve pre-ordered one and are looking forward to using it in the field. It surely seems like a huge step towards, as Aaron Morris of Autodesk says, the “democratization of reality capture”.
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