Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
050 - SHA2017 - Mike Murray and Underwater Laser Scanning
79 Plays7 years ago
All the lasers! Underwater!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor
00:00:00
Speaker
you are listening to the archaeology podcast network the archaeology podcast network is sponsored by codify a california benefit corporation visit codify at www.codifi.com
3D Scanning and Photogrammetry Discussion
00:00:18
Speaker
Alright, this is Chris Webster at the 50th Annual Society for Historical Archaeology in the exhibit hall and I'm talking with Mike Murray of the University of Southampton and he's going to talk about 3D scanning and underwater photogrammetry.
00:00:33
Speaker
photogrammetry compared to underwater laser scanning. So go ahead and tell us what you've got here at the conference. Yeah, so this is a four-part case study that's taking place over the course of four years that compares, as you said, the photogrammetry which has been a
00:00:55
Speaker
technology and a methodology that's been around for quite some time and has reached ubiquity in underwater archaeology compared to a new entrant, relatively new entrant, this underwater laser scan which has traditionally been used in the oil and gas industry for inspection but offers
00:01:13
Speaker
millimetric precision and accuracy, at least by their professionals, to resolve materials underwater. And so we're seeing how they can be complementary to each other, what the advantages and disadvantages of the use, essentially the efficacy of use in underwater archaeology
Challenges and Methods in Underwater Scanning
00:01:31
Speaker
for both.
00:01:31
Speaker
I would think just from a technical standpoint, the way that water distorts light, that laser scanning wouldn't even be a thing. So that's interesting just to begin with. It's amazing how a lot of people are just amazed that lasers can work underwater, function underwater anyway, right? Because it's the Star Wars image, it's the futuristic stuff. But yes, in fact, as you said,
00:01:55
Speaker
it's an extremely challenging environment anyway to record in in underwater archaeology. So you are talking about great challenge but at the same time the great potential to do unprecedented work in the way of recording diagnostics that haven't been realized before in underwater archaeology. So that's the promise with underwater laser scanning because we know
00:02:19
Speaker
from previous studies what terrestrial laser scanning can do so yes again how does that translate to these different environments this is set up in an experimental method methodology type of framework so we have a control
00:02:35
Speaker
case study where it's done under the most ideal conditions in a lab, that's phase one, and then phase two was done in a river that was just really muddy, very turbid, turbid's the word, to see if the laser could even work in a quarter of a meter of visibility.
00:02:53
Speaker
And then there's this one, which is on display here at SHA, which is a third case study that uses it in the park, in the coral reef environment.
Applications in Museums and VR
00:03:04
Speaker
But in a shallow context where you have a lot of different, the perpuscular rays, as it's called, those light rays shining through to the bottom.
00:03:11
Speaker
can really disrupt cause havoc for an optic based system so and then the fourth one will look at it in a partially turbid environment so we're trying to find the thresholds of use you know operational use and then from that
00:03:27
Speaker
be able to determine the efficacy of these. The archaeological goals can be ranged from how do these display well for museums, how do they 3D print well, how can they be of use in the
00:03:45
Speaker
Virtual reality augmented reality mixed reality environments that are up and coming here that are very popular, too So there's a whole wide range of views, but we don't know we don't know the parameters of their use yet, right?
Cost Analysis of Laser Scanning
00:03:58
Speaker
With potential cost to is this the kind of thing you see a company would come in and do this For your project or is it affordable enough that somebody could just like own this stuff and then do it themselves? Yeah, well that is the that is the biggest impediment right now to laser scanning period whether it's underwater
00:04:15
Speaker
or terrestrially, but underwater, the costs are even greater. To put it into context, in 2014, one of these devices cost a quarter million dollars, and then it came down the next year to 150, and now it's down to about 45,000.
00:04:35
Speaker
So this a lot of some of a lot of this is due to they were able to Create an underwire laser scanning scanner which has been around for a while the technology But they made it deployable and they so they they they have an engineering team and they got this together But it's not rocket science and so there are other competitors who are just now kind of catching on to its deployability and that's
00:05:00
Speaker
really causing price depreciation at a great level or at a great rate and so We're right on the precipice here of people being able to buy this and or rent you know on on the same levels not quite as on the same level of photogrammetry because a good DSLR camera can cost just a few thousand dollars or you can rent one or a
00:05:22
Speaker
100 bucks or so but no this unit at its lowest sort of research level of cost is about 20,000 so so No, the rental average rental cost for in our early experience a thousand dollars a day
00:05:38
Speaker
But again, one of the big things that I'm doing is I'm promoting this use for the common archaeologist, the common budget archaeologist, whatever that might be, right? Is that bologna sandwiches in many cases or whatever? But that it can be scaled to their needs.
00:05:58
Speaker
And yet it can be a business, you know, that a freelance contractor or something like that can thrive. Well, even from a commercial standpoint, if you've got to get the project done and there's no other way to do it, other than maybe laser scanning to find out what's down there, I mean, the cost is going to have to be in the proposal.
Future of Laser Scanning Accessibility
00:06:16
Speaker
Well, and the costs are made up in laser scanning in the way of if you're
00:06:22
Speaker
goal if your aim is for highly accurate rendition of something and say it could be for ship preservation purposes as a time series over in in millimeters you want to track these degradation rates laser scanning is by far the choice to use and you save costs in the way of getting it done right
00:06:45
Speaker
from the very beginning. So with these other technologies, especially with hand measurements, you've got a lot of these errors and you have to redo a lot of that. You have to go back often. So if you multiply the times that you go back, right, each time, all the logistics, the personnel, whatever that you have, and then you add in the post-processing cost of photogrammetry, which is tremendous. There's still hours and days, people know, and then it can crash on you and you have to start all over again.
00:07:15
Speaker
Underwire laser scanning and laser scanning is true to scale. It's produced and they're in just a matter of a couple of minutes. You're done. You're done. It's minimal processing. So you got to look at the full pipeline of
00:07:31
Speaker
of production to be able to gauge when you talk about costs. It's not just about the initial acquisition of it, which is what scares people. People think that the biggest cost is buying the equipment, but sometimes that is the biggest cost, but then your savings are long-term. Exactly. So on a long-term forecast, laser scanning is catching up rapidly to these other methodologies, and their Kickstarter
00:07:59
Speaker
operations out there where you have laser scanners that are going to be attached very soon to tablets and to phones and people will be able to laser scan their room and then for the underwater for us you know it's just a matter of putting housing on it right making it waterproof and away you go
Personal and Professional Uses of Laser Technology
00:08:17
Speaker
And then that's the full democratization of the thing. Hey, when my iPhone 9 can shoot lasers out the bottom of it, I'll be happy. Yeah. There you go. Nice. For multiple reasons, right? For multiple reasons, yeah. You know, keep field text in line and also scan your, wait. Well, you know, dance party afterwards, I guess, right? There you go. Is there a website or anything somebody can go to to check more of this out?
Mike Murray's Online Presence
00:08:43
Speaker
So there really isn't, at this point, it's just, this is the very initial launch of it, but I have a LinkedIn webpage and I have a blog at the University of Southampton. If they go to the University of Southampton, they can track, you can blog about it. It's Michael Murray, PhD, candidate, researcher.
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:09:01
Speaker
Put those in there into your search engine, then you should be able to find it, so. All right, more information. Well, thanks, Mike. Well, thank you.
00:09:11
Speaker
This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com