Last week, I had the privileged of attending the ASME iShow. For anyone not familiar with the ASME iShow, it is a design competition for socially conscious products. My role at the show was to offer consulting on how Fusion 360 could help the teams design their products.
This year the ten finalists had a wide array of products that would impact people in multiple different ways. Below is a list of the finalists:
MOTI
MOTI is an IOT device that will help people live happier lives, one habit at a time.
PayGo Energy
The Pay Go Smart Meter will help people in developing countries buy clean burning fuel on a pay-as- you-go basis.
Agua Pallet
Agua Pallet is a pallet that can deliver aid, then be converted into a hand cart for transporting water and other goods.
Otter Warmer
Otter Warmer is a newborn conductive warmer designed to treat premature newborns vulnerable to hypothermia.
The CRAPPER
The CRAPPER is an affordable, water-less composting toilet that will safely treat human waste.
NODE
NODE is a low cost, GSM/GPRS enabled, Arduino based, rugged universal data monitoring unit.
Stove Trace
Stove Trace is a cloud-based remote monitoring system for clean cook-stoves, and offers financial incentives to rural households to use the clean cook-stoves.
AMPARO
AMPARO is redefining prosthetic care by creating a socket that is easier to fit, thus shortening the wait time for prosthesis.
Hydorsac
The Hydrosac is a flexible hydroponic/aquaponic system.
Buoy
Buoy is a connected whole-house device that gives homeowner's leak detection and detailed data on water consumption.
PayGo Energy, AMPARO, and Buoy received grants to further their work. All of the products at the show were all deserving of recognition for the impact they could make to society. All the teams received great advise from a host of experts on how to get these products to market. I really enjoyed the product pitches on Thursday afternoon. I like the show Shark Tank, and the pitch process was a lot like that.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Friday, June 17, 2016
Current Survey Technology: Part 3 The Results
It does pain me to say that I was not able to get a good model from the drone photos that day. I really wanted to post the model and say, "Look what we were able to do!" But we were not able to get that model. I would not say that the efforts were wasted in anyway. As long as you learn lessons to improve your process and efforts in the future, the project is not a failure.
So what are the lessons we learned?
Lesson #1: You need more than 31 photos
I always try to get a minimum of 50 photos. ReCap's maximum of 250 photos really is best. I got about 31 then let my son fly the drone. His flight ended in a tree, and it took us about 30 minutes to get the drone down. I guess we could have try to fly again. However, I only have two batteries and was worried that I was low on power. The model of drone I have behaves poorly when low on power.
Lesson #2: Pick Frisbees of VERY different colors
When I grabbed a Red and Pink Frisbees, I thought they they may seem too similar in the photos. Then I thought that because the colors were significantly different I would be okay. From the vantage point of the drone, with the sun glaring off the them, it was at times difficult to tell the red from the pink. If I had trouble, I have to assume the software had trouble with telling them apart.
Lesson #3: My hobby quality drone does not fly stable enough for this process
I love drones. For me the appeal is equally how much fun they are to fly and the aerial photography and videos. My drone is so light and is at the mercy of the wind. We only had 6 MPH winds that day and my drone was still pushed very strongly by the wind. Most professional quality drones have GPS and flight planning abilities. Where those are not a mandatory feature for this process, they can make it easier to fly the site and can improve the quality of the results.
Lesson #4: My kids love to run around A LOT
If you look in the photos, my kids did not stay in one place. In fact, they were all over the field, and I have the pictures to prove it. ReCap has no way to filter out my daughter in the photos and work around her. To ReCap she is a feature in the field and tried to match and her surroundings in the photos. So as she went from end to end of the field, ReCap was assuming she was stationary, and this movement confused the results. For ReCap to work right, you really want to try to keep the area clear, as much as reasonable. If I had 250 photos, the movements by my daughter would not have confused ReCap as much.
I was so disappointed that I did not get some really meaningful results. I know the process works, I have seen the process work. I guess it is safe to say that you will not be seeing any advertisements for Olson & Kids Surveying anytime in the future. Well maybe if I can convince my wife to let me get a professional quality drone...Just kidding.
So what are the lessons we learned?
Lesson #1: You need more than 31 photos
I always try to get a minimum of 50 photos. ReCap's maximum of 250 photos really is best. I got about 31 then let my son fly the drone. His flight ended in a tree, and it took us about 30 minutes to get the drone down. I guess we could have try to fly again. However, I only have two batteries and was worried that I was low on power. The model of drone I have behaves poorly when low on power.
Lesson #2: Pick Frisbees of VERY different colors
When I grabbed a Red and Pink Frisbees, I thought they they may seem too similar in the photos. Then I thought that because the colors were significantly different I would be okay. From the vantage point of the drone, with the sun glaring off the them, it was at times difficult to tell the red from the pink. If I had trouble, I have to assume the software had trouble with telling them apart.
Lesson #3: My hobby quality drone does not fly stable enough for this process
I love drones. For me the appeal is equally how much fun they are to fly and the aerial photography and videos. My drone is so light and is at the mercy of the wind. We only had 6 MPH winds that day and my drone was still pushed very strongly by the wind. Most professional quality drones have GPS and flight planning abilities. Where those are not a mandatory feature for this process, they can make it easier to fly the site and can improve the quality of the results.
Lesson #4: My kids love to run around A LOT
If you look in the photos, my kids did not stay in one place. In fact, they were all over the field, and I have the pictures to prove it. ReCap has no way to filter out my daughter in the photos and work around her. To ReCap she is a feature in the field and tried to match and her surroundings in the photos. So as she went from end to end of the field, ReCap was assuming she was stationary, and this movement confused the results. For ReCap to work right, you really want to try to keep the area clear, as much as reasonable. If I had 250 photos, the movements by my daughter would not have confused ReCap as much.
I was so disappointed that I did not get some really meaningful results. I know the process works, I have seen the process work. I guess it is safe to say that you will not be seeing any advertisements for Olson & Kids Surveying anytime in the future. Well maybe if I can convince my wife to let me get a professional quality drone...Just kidding.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Current Survey Technology: Part 2 Data Processing
The Processing of the Data is pretty simple, thanks to the ReCap 360 Pro workflow. On the ReCap 360 Pro website, I can start a new "Photo to 3D" project. All I have to do is upload the photos identify the control points.
When I pick a control point in a photo, I can then enter the coordinates for that point. I can even enter the information in Latitude, Longitude, and Elevation format. In my case, the MapIt - Mobile app gave me the Latitude and Longitude, so I had to use the USGS website to get the elevations for my control points.
When identifying the control points, it is feasible to identify the points in as many photos as possible. I have tried this in the past, and it has really overloaded the system. Autodesk's official opinion is that you are to let the software auto register the photographs. Which is what I would do if I was not trying to properly geolocate the model, and have it scaled properly. So I try to identify the control points in about 3 photos.
After the manual registration process, I can pick my output file types and let the system process the model. When it comes to output files, I always pick RCS and ORTHO for Survey based models. The RCS can be loaded into the ReCap desktop application. I will sometimes include the RCM, which is the Autodesk Memento file format. I will occasionally include this so I have it if I want to load the model into Memento.
Here is a Screencast that demonstrates the process.
When I pick a control point in a photo, I can then enter the coordinates for that point. I can even enter the information in Latitude, Longitude, and Elevation format. In my case, the MapIt - Mobile app gave me the Latitude and Longitude, so I had to use the USGS website to get the elevations for my control points.
When identifying the control points, it is feasible to identify the points in as many photos as possible. I have tried this in the past, and it has really overloaded the system. Autodesk's official opinion is that you are to let the software auto register the photographs. Which is what I would do if I was not trying to properly geolocate the model, and have it scaled properly. So I try to identify the control points in about 3 photos.
After the manual registration process, I can pick my output file types and let the system process the model. When it comes to output files, I always pick RCS and ORTHO for Survey based models. The RCS can be loaded into the ReCap desktop application. I will sometimes include the RCM, which is the Autodesk Memento file format. I will occasionally include this so I have it if I want to load the model into Memento.
Here is a Screencast that demonstrates the process.
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