Tech to Protect Challenge: Join us in NYC this weekend
This weekend we will be supporting the Tech to Protect Challenge in NYC as part of our national co-sponsorship of the initiative. DotProduct CMO Tom Greaves will be on site on Sunday 11/3 as a judge for the event. Please click here for more info on this weekend's codeathon.

The next evolution of handheld 3D scanning has arrived. Today we are glad to officially announce our new flagship handheld 3D scanner...the DPI-10! Powered by the very latest Dot3D Pro 3.2 software, this new complete 3D scanning kit is the very first to offer...

1. Multi-sensor compatibility (PrimeSense, RealSense™, and more to come)
2. Daylight scanning capabilities (even in direct sunlight with Intel® RealSense™!)
3. Windows OS support (available for Surface Go or Galaxy Tab S4)
4. Major increase in single scene capture size (up to 160 million points)
5. Improved HD photo capture functionality on Android and Windows
6. Semi-automatic registration of multiple DP scans via AprilTags
7. Much more in combination with the release of Dot3D 3.2!

The DPI-10 and Dot3D Pro 3.2 will begin shipping this September. Please contact us here to get on the waitlist today. You may also download Dot3D 3.2 Beta here. DPI-10 upgrades will be made available to all DotProduct customers on active support & maintenance plans.

Please see below for several images of the new setup (Surface Go version), new sample data of large area scans, and outdoor sample data capture with the Intel® RealSense™ D415.

Tom Greaves, CMO - DotProduct Boston

On June 14-15, I joined Don Comstock, deputy coroner, Park County, Colorado and his team to document a mass fatality simulation staged on the outskirts of Fairplay, Colorado. At 2966 m (10,000 ft.) the air is a little thinner than sea level in Boston. The DT Research tablet equipped with the Intel RealSense D415 depth camera and Hemisphere dual frequency GNNS sensor worked without a hitch but the operator, me, felt the altitude.

​The scene simulated a bus rolling over the embankment with more than 20 passengers.  Inflatable dummies can be seen outside the bus and there were some inside as well.

More than 75 first responders from nearby municipalities joined the event.  While processing some data, I also got a rare view of the action back at headquarters where the response coordination took place. Most of us have no idea about all the effort and coordination required to respond to a catastrophe – every detail from contacting next-of-kin to managing the press to documenting the site to making sure first responders themselves are looked after. 

We captured the most the scene in full 3D with the DT Research tablet. The mobility of the tablet allowed the capture of geo-referenced data inside and outside the bus in just a few minutes.  Geo-located high resolutions image were also captured – see Figure 4.  

Annotations and measurements of the scene were also taken. See Figures 5 and 6.

This past December we were glad to continue our support for the IAFSM at their annual conference in Fort Worth, TX. To kick off the event, we were invited to participate in a very unique project: "Active Shooter: Documenting the Aftermath", a scenario-based, multi-disciplinary 3D scanning workshop off site at the Fort Worth Police Bob Bolen Public Safety Complex. This highly impressive facility is one of the top public safety training centers in the country, and provided us with the opportunity to put our very latest technologies to the test. Under the simulated scenario of a multi-agency response to a large scale active shooter scene, we were tasked to collaborate with a wide variety of law enforcement personnel, crime scene investigators, manufacturers, and different 3D capture hardware and software platforms.

While several groups split off to capture larger scale data sets with tripod scanners, mobile mapping systems, and drones, we were specifically tasked with capturing detailed, full-color data sets of some of the more crucial areas of the crime scene. The first area assigned included the gas pumps and surrounding evidence at a gas station. We scanned this area in its entirety with the new DPI-8S handheld 3D scanning kit in a matter of minutes. As best practice, we referenced two scale measurements with a laser disto, and included AprilTags for loop closure throughout the scene. The resulting data stitched together incredibly well with the larger tripod data sets and was presented as such at the end of the conference. Please see below for the .DP scan data, as well as some images from the session:

Next, we moved into the convenience store of the gas station, where a clerk had been shot behind the counter, and further pieces of evidence needed to be documented. Similarly, we took a couple quick scale measurements as best practice, and also added some AprilTags for loop closure. Please see below for the resulting data in DP format and images from the scan:

Lastly, while the DPI-8S performed especially well for these interior capture scenarios at the tactical training village, we also saw the opportunity to put the Intel RealSense D415 to the test for capturing a vehicle outside in the very bright Texas sunlight. This sensor was attached to a Microsoft Surface Go tablet, equipped with Dot3D Pro. While shiny metals can still be a bit challenging on sunny days, the RealSense did perform impressively well on the vehicle, despite the fact that it was noon on a cloudless day in the middle of the driving track at the training facility. Please see below for the resulting data and some images from the scanning session:

We would like to thank the IAFSM, Fort Worth Police Department, and all others involved for putting this excellent event together, and we look forward to more events like this in the future.