The influx of television shows that deal with crime scenes seems to be never ending. The incredibly intelligent forensic scientists notice the smallest conceivable detail and solve the case with stunning accuracy. TV has a long history of wrapping things up in a nice, marketable, package that keeps viewers coming back every week to follow their favorite agent and his fight for justice. There are a lot of disputes out there about how accurate...
How To Become A Surveyor
It’s another beautiful Oklahoma City summer day and you are driving east out of town. The feeling of adventure prompts you to take a side road and do some exploring. Backroads are an institution in this part of the country and who doesn’t love exploring? Unexpectedly, you come upon a truck with yellow flashing lights and slow instinctively. Looks like, out in the middle of nowhere, a survey crew is taking some bearings. It might not...
Was That Another Drone?
Drones are here to stay and the advancements that they have made in five years are incredible. They are being utilized in ways that are very exciting, such as land surveying and inspection. Your recreational drone is a little quadcopter that can be used to hover over locations and take pictures or video. Meanwhile, the heavy duty drones that are prevalent in military or industrial applications are beefed up versions of their civilian...
X-Ray Vision
The revolution of the drone is upon us. Is that scary? In some aspects, yes. But drones, like superman’s X-ray vision, should only be used for good – not evil. In many respects drones are a lot like X-ray vision, they are easy to use for the wrong reasons. We have all heard about drones being used to snoop on unsuspecting people who believed they were not being filmed. The media has also told of drones being used in close proximity to...
Surveying the Past
Land Surveying has been the way that humans have defined boundaries for centuries. The Great Pyramid in Egypt is a representation of the accuracy that can be accomplished with the correct knowledge. Romans established boundaries of their empire in order to collect the appropriate taxes. That sounds similar to property taxes by today’s standards! European churches would gather for a ceremony of “beating the bounds” in which young boys and men...
Interior and Exterior 3D Mapping
A fascinating aspect of current mapping technology is 3D laser scanning. Let’s say that you need to retrofit a historic building with a modern infrastructure of network cables. The installation of these cables must be completed in the least invasive manner possible. From a planning aspect, blueprints are the standard. Blueprints, however accurate, are a representation of what the building should look like. Not necessarily what it...