UF’s Historical Preservation Program purchased a FARO Focus3D laser scanner earlier this month to document sites throughout the country, preserving 3D scans of any location. Its goal is to focus on the documentation, preservation and management of cultural heritage, according to a program proposal.
The scanner was paid for through grants and donations to the Historical Preservation Program, totaling $100,000, said Morris Hylton III, director of historic preservation at UF.
The FARO Focus3D is a three-dimensional laser scanner that creates photorealistic plans, sections, elevations and Historic American Building Survey-quality line drawings. The scanner creates an efficient and accurate measurement of sites and their surroundings, both interiors and exteriors, according to the proposal.
“The laser technology has been around for years, primarily for land surveying, but it has improved dramatically within the past five years,” Hylton said.
According to the FARO website, the scanner works by collecting points in space captured by a laser beam that reflects objects and surfaces it encounters. It then creates a 3D virtual model that documents the structure’s design and existing conditions.
In the spring, the FARO scanner will be used in a preservation project, Envision: MiMo, about the conditions of midcentury modern Miami sites such as the former Bacardi Headquarters and the Miami Marine Stadium, according to the project proposal.
Eventually, the products can become part of the Envision Heritage database, where multiple scans of sites can be stored in one location, allowing people to experience them without actually visiting.
The scanner is used for 3D building documentation, construction supervision, reverse engineering, historic preservation and even interior design, according to the FARO website.
“In interior design, we not only look at the design of the room but how people actually inhabit the space,” Hylton said.
The FARO Focus3D assigns distance to the surface objects by calculating the time of flight of the laser in relation to the known speed of light. As it scans, it collects between 122,000 to 976,000 points a second, depending on the resolution of the selected scan, according to the FARO website.
“One of the main benefits of the scanner is that it is both accurate and fast,” said Brian Shea, 26, a graduate research assistant working on master’s degrees in historic preservation and urban regional planning. “With the scanner, one room can be documented in mere minutes, rather than documenting by hand, which could take hours.”
The FARO laser scanner has been ordered and it is set to arrive at UF in December. It will then be used by the College of Design, Construction and Planning.
