Re/Cappers, four score and seven years ago is 87 years.
Now, this issue has nothing to do with the year 1937, Honest Abe, Gettysburg, or even scores for that matter.
But it has much to do with an American president, one whose handcrafted wooden wonders are getting the reality capture treatment. But before we Re/Cap it, did you know a different president himself got the reality capture treatment, in a duet of firsts?
It’s 2014…
…And Barack Obama needs that portrait. He sits, summoning his most presidential pose, while Smithsonian specialists and Artec 3D, 50 custom-built LED lights, eight high-res cameras, and six wide-angle cameras go to rapid work.
He is then asked to shift away from the lights and cameras, so his likeness can be captured by a structured-light 3D scanner. Easy peasy.
This combination of efforts would yield a master file of 3D mesh composed of 15 million triangles which would be used to 3D print the bust and a life mask, while also enabling 3D models for digital viewing.
The first American Presidential bust forged from 3D scan data. Image credit Smithsonian
Centuries of painstaking bust-making, to this? That’s an amendment.
What’s Cappenin’ This Week: Jimmy Carter might be elderly but his tech taste is new, a city looks to digital twins for a literal jolt, a drone & droid delivery collab keeps us fuller faster, 19 AI tools make for new architecture, and an AEC Error of the Week that heads to Vegas for a buffet of failures.
Mini ‘Cappenins: Drones & dolphins, VR and digital twins in remote technical work, laser scanning brains, drone news re: DJI and acquisitions, INTERGEO round-up, and an RCN pod on 3D & XR, incremental change, and Mark Cuban’s investment.
Last issue: IKEA Drones, LiDAR’s a trail guide on steroids, Deloitte delves into the digital customer experience in manufacturing and construction, Vectorworks’ CEO gets interviewed, and an AEC Error of the Week in which the Christmas spirit was celebrated with some forced evacuations.
In their dotage, most former presidents take to more golf and maybe the occasional six-figure speech (which is probably selected based on golf club proximity.)
But Jimmy Carter, celebrating official centenarianhood, is teeing off with technology.
President Carter with a handcrafted dining set that raised $600,000 for The Carter Center. Image credit Russ Filbeck
A deft woodworker long before entering The Oval Office, #POTUS#39 has a vast catalog of gorgeous completions. And to honor it, some University of South Florida researchers have elected photogrammetry and structured light scanning.
And that’s just the first term! The real endgame is the U.S. National Park Service enlisting the cream of the global woodworking crop to use the digital models to build exact replicas. Article and video courtesy of Yahoo! linked below.
Even the fiercest carbon hater would likely agree that there is a lot more talk than walk when it comes to emissions initiatives of institutions and governments.
But in Ithaca, New York, it’s all feet and no mouths. It has a goal of city-wide carbon neutrality by 2030, and if they’re going to achieve it, it’ll be thanks to digital twins.
Heating so cool one almost gets chills. Image credit Cornell University’s Environmental Systems Lab via RMI
The “socioeconomic urban building energy model” comes via a partnership between Cornell University’s Environmental System Lab and RMI, an independent, nonpartisan, energy-focused nonprofit. Accounting for 5,468 buildings, the twin will help project climate impacts as well as costs of retrofit measures. Get the full firsthand account below, exploring the process, air-source heat pumps, key takeaways for other cities, solar energy, residential vs. commercial buildings, the mayor’s vision, and more!
Serve Robotics spun out of Postmates a few years back, and has become adored thanks to its futuristic-shopping-cart aesthetic. The one drawback to its deliveries is speed, as it operates on sidewalks in the name of safety and traffic aversion.
But a new partnership is sure to pick up the pace.
Earth, wind, and fire-grilled. Image credit Wing via Engadget
Wing - owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet - will help expedite time and expand delivery range, using AutoLoader stations and a 65 MPH airborne delivery speed, a stark contrast to the 6 MPH of the Serve fleet.
Almost surprisingly, it is the first integration of sidewalk and aerial delivery. The Verge has the full order below on the steps, benefits, Dallas, TX as the initial roll out, and more.
The superb 2015 film The Big Short recounts the true story of the people who made a fortune off the 2007-08 Great Financial Crisis. They didn’t steal anything, they didn’t wrong anyone - they just saw stuff 99.99999% of others did not.
Which is kind of what Blaine Brownell, FAIA, architect/materials researcher/Director of the School of Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is doing. But he’s not short the housing market - he’s long AI in AEC, with an emphasis on the A.
Aino’s “15-minute city” concept. Except in L.A. at 5:10 PM, when it becomes “4-hour city.” Image credit Aino
In a concise yet expansive piece for Architect Magazine, Brownell begins by explaining the prevalence of professionals whose AI use is relegated to ChatGPT and Copilot. He then lends a helping hand, supplying 19 reasons why that’s sub-optimal for professionals. Intelligentify yourself below.
Las Vegas’ Harmon Hotel really crapped out. Image credit Steve Marcus via Las Vegas Weekly
If you thought a $30 margarita at The Sphere was a waste of money, find the nearest time machine and go back about a decade!
Las Vegas’ Harmon Hotel was a hotel and condo complex that was supposed to be the royal flush of the $8.5 billion CityCenter development. Instead, it said “Hit me” while sitting at 19.
Construction kicked off in 2006, with architect Lord Norman Foster of Apple HQ fame designing a sleek tower that would make the Vegas skyline even more dazzling. But by 2008, Lady Luck had left the building. Engineers discovered that the rebar - you know, that stuff that's supposed to keep buildings from falling down - was about as properly placed as a drunk tourist's poker chips.
The project stopped, while at just 28 floors instead of the intended 49. MGM, realizing they'd bet on the wrong horse, canceled the condo pursuit and pushed the opening to 2010. But by then, they'd decided the only winning move was not to play at all, and announced the building needed to be demolished. Good, because a structural engineer reported that the Harmon could collapse in a strong earthquake.
What followed was a four-year legal battle that made the average Vegas boxing match look like a pair of sloths pillow fighting. Meanwhile, the Harmon stood as a 26-story monument to Murphy's Law, hosting exactly zero guests and countless headaches.
The demolition process was as unique as fair-priced bottle service too; instead of the usual Vegas-style implosion, workers dismantled the Harmon floor by floor from the top down.
When the dust settled, the numbers were staggering: $275 million to build, $173 million to take down. That's $448 million for a building that never saw a single guest - talk about a bad beat!
But what if the house had played with a better deck? Here's how reality capture could have turned this bust into a jackpot:
Metrology techniques could have ensured precise measurements throughout construction, verifying that all components met stringent specifications. Think of it as having an ultra-detail-oriented friend who won’t let you roll up to the club without checking your outfit twice. BIM could have provided a comprehensive digital twin, allowing for clash detection and ensuring that every piece of rebar was in its place.
Terrestrial or airborne laser scans could have caught discrepancies between design and as-built conditions faster than a card counter spots a weak dealer. These scans would have highlighted issues long before they became a $448 million problem. 360° cameras could have created immersive visual documentation of each construction phase, allowing project managers to review progress and identify potential issues from every angle.
Remember, folks: in Vegas, the house always wins. But with reality capture, at least we can make sure the house stays standing!
Bonus laughs: Las Vegas Weekly’s on what should replace The Harmon.
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