KELYN3D Lidar News Interview – Dennis Shimer, Technician, M.A.N. Mapping Services, Inc. –

Lidar News is interested in how innovative companies and individuals are leveraging advanced technologies for enhanced visualization and improved modeling and design outcomes. For this Q&A Feature, Lidar News Editor Gene Roe interviews M.A.N. Mapping Services Inc Technician Dennis Shimer.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Can you please provide a brief overview of your professional background(s) and experience, particularly with 3D technologies and visualization, and/or a brief history of the growth of the company and its use of 3D technology? Please include an idea of the timelines.

It is relevant to understand that I have been working in photogrammetric 3D virtual environments since 1982.  Of course in those days the data was a 9 inch square photograph produced by a camera the size of a file cabinet, and the hardware was several thousand pounds of steel and glass physically recreating the moment of image exposure with spatial and geometric accuracy.  The viewing system was a binocular set of eyepieces that allowed you to enter a virtual space that, because of the resolution and color depth of film, felt like an actual physical place.  I mention this because it is the standard that “old guys” were up against as the transition was made to digital photogrammetry. M.A.N. Mapping Services made our way through several viewing systems as the technology grew, including polarized bezels on monitors, and LCD shutter systems which did an amazing job but never quite returned to that “actually being there” feeling. 

Can you provide an inventory of some of the primary 3D surveying and mapping hardware and software that your company currently uses, as well as any other related products? Please include an idea of the timeline of purchases.

Being a photogrammetric mapping company that specializes in large scale topographic mapping for engineers and surveyors we get by with a limited but powerful toolset.  For over 30 years our primary data collection and processing system has been a version of the VrOne/VrTwo package from Cardinal Systems LLC.  We also try to integrate the best and most active open source image, geomatic, and LiDAR projects into our daily flow.  Because almost every minute of the day is spent in 3D virtual space our hardware has always been driven by the need to maximize the viewing experience. Unlike the early days of the dedicated Silicon Graphics workstations, we can currently get by with reasonably powerful towers and retail video cards.  I currently use Lenovo’s P500 Xeon workstations and the Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 video cards. The problem over the years is that viewing systems tend to move toward obsolescence and waning support by either the operating system or video card drivers.

What attracted you to KELYN3D and the 3D PluraView monitors? Did you look at other products? Why did you choose KELYN and 3D PluraView?

It was that usual struggle to stay ahead of that obsolescence curve that always had us looking at what was available.  VrOne/VrTwo was flexible and mostly agnostic enough to offer several options and it was the Vr help documents that gave me the nod to check PluraView out.  What really intrigued me was the system appeared to be engineered using commercial off-the-shelf components, nothing that appeared it would eventually age out due to changing hardware and drivers.  When I talked to friends who had been hands on with the screen they raved about the ease of setup and use as well as the viewing experience. For me the fact that it is essentially a purpose-built system using simple dual ( or more ) monitor setup using basic driver and operating system features really appealed to me.

CLICK HERE for the rest of the interview

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