Leica Geosystems Teams with Matterport to Deliver AEC Solution

Leica Geosystems, producer of measuring technologies, has announced a partnership with Matterport to integrate Leica’s new BLK360 imaging laser scanner into Matterport’s cloud-based platform for capturing 3D spaces.

The Matterport 3D Camera, which ENGINEERING.com reviewed last year, is a clever bit of hardware with  an incredibly easy-to-use platform. Youdownload an iPad app and purchase a monthly cloud-subscription to host captured spaces. You connect to the Matterport’s Wi-Fi, hit “Capture” on your iPad, and the camera rotates 360 degrees, capturing reality data with structured light at a maximum distance of 15 feet from the static position. Each capture takes about 30 seconds. You then move the Matterport 3D Camera (mounted on a tripod) about 6-8 feet, and repeat until you’ve captured a space. Connect back to the internet, upload your space, and the cloud processes the scan.

Matterport also announced a partnership with Multivista this summer, enabling users to manipulate scan data with third-party apps. With the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector in its sights, the Multivista construction progress documentation service that is integrated with the Leica BLK 360 imaging laser scanner should be of interest.

Cost

The new Matterport Pro2 came out at the beginning of this summer, includes a 4K lens, and costs USD $3,995.

The Leica BLK360 imaging laser scanner likely costs around USD $10,000, but you need to register on the company’s website to receive a quote, which will be live shortly after the publication of this post.

The convergence of these two technologies from Leica Geosystems and Matterport is an attempt to create a new solution for on-site scanning that results in more efficient and less expensive 3D scanning and faster deployment over a distributed set of projects. I’m curious if any of the features made possible with this partnership will allow a team to simultaneously use multiple scanners to capture data on-site.

Bottom Line

Leica Geosystems and Matterport will have this integration ready for the AEC sector in 2018. For Matterport, this is part of a new chapter where the Leica BLK360 imaging laser scanner will be among the first of other capturing devices to be integrated into the Matterport Cloud system, including Google Tango-enabled products.

The above image shows a capture of Lawrence Berkeley National Labs captured by both the BLK360 and the Matterport Pro2 camera. Both cameras were controlled through the Matterport Capture App to create a single3D model. No information was released about the procedure followed to capture this image, so there’s no way of telling if they had to capture from the exact same spot or if they could capture non-contiguous areas in a distributed capture system. Perhaps more than one device can now be connected the Capture app, but perhaps not. (Image courtesy of Matterport.)