Today is a celebration of tradition, Re/Cappers.
Whoa whoa whoa, hold your horses and put down that pumpkin pie, we’re not at Thanksgiving yet.
BUT…we’re sure grateful for TIME magazine’s annual ‘Best Inventions’ release. 2024’s rendition is today’s lead Re/Cap, as it’s replete with tech that is, at minimum, reality capture-adjacent.
It got Re/Cap HQ thinking – in the publication’s 23 years, what was the first inclusion of anything remotely affiliated with reality capture?
Upon researching, one that immediately jumps out is the camera phone, of 2003’s entry. But that felt…easy.
2007’s Lucky Camera taking images of the cosmos that made Hubble’s look like 70s Polaroids was astonishing, as was the computer vision-driven HortiBot that was half-farmhand half-droid. But neither sustained relevance into today.
You know, like IoT did…
2008 saw the Internet of Things make the cut, after heavy hitters from Cisco to Sun formed the Internet Protocol for the Smart Objects Alliance. These mavericks had the audacity to suggest sensor-based devices could communicate to one another…and us.
Sure hope that idea landed on its feet.
What’s Cappenin’ This Week: 2024’s top inventions, potential POTUS’ stances on construction’s top issues, dental implants get an AI & photogrammetric assist, a massive Maya city gets stumbled upon, and an AEC Error of the Week featuring a famous bridge in San FranciscOH SH–
Mini Cappenins: A gov’t IoT report, Dell AI revs up a McLaren F1 car, Meta vs. Snap’s AR vision for the future, USC gets soaking wet for a photogrammetry expedition, NVIDIA ray tracing should be impossible, and how construction is tackling three emerging risks.
Last week: Silk Road scanning, lessons from a Singaporean port twin, Maui’s wildfire rebuild gets a helping hand from survey grants, Helene & Milton recoveries lift off with drones, and an AEC Error of the Week set on a Canadian parking deck.
TIME magazine has been annually ranking our world’s best inventions for 23 years, refining their industries and selection process over the same period. The criteria for 2024 boiled down to originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.
That’s right up Re/Cappers’ alleys, even if every listing isn’t bona fide reality capture.
Whadda we got? Humanoid robots entering the workforce, autonomous crop drones, 3D modeling & printing, 360° action cams, car scans, the world’s largest computer chip, oh, and by the way, a 3D map of some dainty entity known as our universe. And all that’s hardly the appetizer round, so good luck spending under 200 minutes in this 200-item portfolio of technological splendor.
Happy Election Day Re/Cappers! Given the post-pandemic inflation & interest rate volatility, labor data & outlook, immigration, and innovation on the whole, the construction industry will be among the most reactive to this election’s results.
Construction Dive knew it, and assembled a compendium of ConComparisons for the two potential #47s, in a refreshingly objective manner with sources in every entry. Topics include infrastructure, energy, the environment, immigration, infrastructure, interest rates, labor, taxes, and workplace policies. Don’t veto reading this detailed, yet concise examination.
From Tinder photos to gas station jerky tolerance, dental implants are a modern marvel. But they are far from perfect, what with tedious creation processes, inaccuracies, unpredictability, maintenance, and poor procedure explanation to patients.
Well, AI & photogrammetry are about to bring as much relief as the first floss after a ten-year hiatus.
Nobel Biocare has just unveiled FastMap, which allows dental professionals to measure and maintain the true position of implants and abutments relative to the preoperative prosthetic plan and the patient’s anatomy. Ever-conveniently, the X-Guide device hovers over the patient, abandoning any need for handheld devices. Bite down below for Dental Tribune’s breakdown on the process, capabilities, modeling, and more.
Some of our civilization’s greatest discoveries were accidental. And even though a recent one didn’t give us X-rays or Play-Doh, it did provide insight into a supremely fascinating culture – the Maya. And it all started with some internet browsing.
“I was on something like page 16 of Google search and found a laser survey done by a Mexican organization for environmental monitoring,” explains Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane University.
But when Auld-Thomas processed the data the way reality capture-savvy archaeologists do, he caught others’ oversight – a lost, massive city that up to 50,000 people could have called home around 1,200 years ago.
And you know he was the OG discoverer, because he was even able to name it. BBC has a laser-sharp analysis below of Valeriana’s makeup, subsequent surveys, and what the discovery means for the region’s perceived history. Full paper courtesy of Cambridge University here.
When the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge’s eastern span replacement project began, it was hailed as a marvel of modern engineering and the largest public works project in the Golden State’s history. However, in March 2013, just months before the scheduled opening, a critical flaw emerged that would later require more funds than an insatiable venture capitalist.
Engineers discovered that 32 out of 96 massive steel anchor rods had cracked after being tightened. These weren’t just any bolts – they were critical components designed to connect the bridge deck to concrete caps, crucial for controlling movement during an earthquake.
The culprit? A phenomenon known as hydrogen embrittlement which, no, had nothing to do with what Dr. Evil did to himself in that vessel thing.
HE occurs when hydrogen atoms infiltrate high-strength steel, making it brittle and prone to cracking under stress. It’s a known risk in the industry, but one that somehow slipped through the cracks of this multi-billion dollar project.
The failure of these rods raised serious concerns about the long-term performance of the remaining A354BD rods throughout the bridge. Subsequent investigations revealed that the rods failed due largely to environmental exposure; the rods were tensioned above their hydrogen embrittlement threshold while simultaneously immersed in water, which served as the source of hydrogen. Additionally, the low hydrogen embrittlement threshold of the 2008 rods was likely due to rod fabrication methods, not galvanizing as initially suspected.
But the rod failure was just chapter one – the very design of the bridge itself was fraught with problems from the start.
In 1997, a panel of 34 experts chose a self-anchored suspension span design, favored for its aesthetics but notorious for technical complexity. As Marwan Nader, the chief engineer on the project, admitted, “There was nothing that we could go back to — a book or a previous bridge — and say, ‘That’s what we did over there, that’s what we do.’ The decision led to a cascade of issues:
Skyrocketing costs: What was initially estimated as a “meaningless difference” in cost ballooned into billions of dollars over budget.
Technical challenges: Beyond the rod failure, the unique design led to leaks in the steel structure, cracked welds, and misaligned road decks.
Expertise mismatch: All but one of the bridge experts on the selection panel opposed the final design, but they were personae non gratae, outvoted by those with no bridge knowledge or experience.
Reality Capture: A Bridge to Better Engineering Hindsight is 20/20, but it’s worth considering how reality capture technologies could have helped mitigate some of these issues – ‘cause they sure haven’t magically disappeared from worksites ‘cross the globe.
360° cameras could have created comprehensive visual documentation of the construction process, particularly during the installation of the steel rods, allowing engineers to review the installation in detail and potentially spot issues with sealing or placement before they became critical problems. Subsequent photogrammetry could have forged ultra-accurate 3D models of the bridge components, including the steel rods and their housing, enabling engineers to detect early signs of stress or deformation that preceded the cracking. A similar result could have been achieved via regular 3D laser scans of the site, identifying issues with rod placement and sealing.
Drone inspections equipped with high-res cameras or laser scanners could have provided regular, detailed monitoring of hard-to-reach areas of the bridge, identifying issues like water accumulation or early signs of corrosion that might have been missed by ground-based inspections. All of this data could have been integrated into a comprehensive digital twin of the bridge, updated in real-time, providing engineers with a holistic view of the structure’s performance and potential weak points.
The Bay Bridge blunder serves as a stark reminder that in mega-projects, aesthetic ambition must be balanced with engineering practicality. As we continue to push the boundaries of design, integrating reality capture technologies isn’t just a luxury – it’s a necessity for ensuring the safety, efficiency, and long-term viability of our critical infrastructure.
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