If you’ve ever wished for a faster, easier way to capture point clouds from a scene or to quickly and comprehensively document a school building to improve school safety, you won’t want to miss the upcoming workshop at the International Association of Forensic and Security Metrology 6th Annual International Education Conference (IAFSM 2020) in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 23-27.
The workshop, Transforming Public Safety with Real-Time Handheld Reality Capture, will show how the innovative BLK2GO handheld imaging laser scanner gives the public safety community an easy-to-use mobile mapping solution that’s ideal for onsite security planning, school safety, and public building documentation. “One of the key focuses of the FBI National Academy Associates education and training programs right now is built around school safety, school-shooting prevention planning, and response plans for active-shooter situations,” says Ryan M. Rezzelle, who manages the Leica Geosystems Public Safety Group in the US & Canada. “When it comes to quickly inventorying buildings, truly there’s nothing faster than the BLK2GO.”
A Practical, Affordable Mobile-Mapping Solution for Emergency Preparedness
The BLK2GO combines two-axis LiDAR with SLAM and Leica’s VIS technologies to accurately track its movement and simultaneously unify point clouds while recreating complex spaces with unprecedented efficiency and speed. “It’s a lightning fast way to document a visual representation of a space in a full immersive point cloud with images,” Rezzelle says. Users can get live 2D and 3D visualizations, check the device status, and do quick data inspections with the BLK2GO Live app for iPhone.
It’s both an easy and practical way to capture point clouds on the fly. “You literally hold it in your hand and walk around with it,” Rezzelle says. In addition to one-button operation and one-click import, the BLK2GO is small, light (11 x 3.15 inches; less than 1.75 pounds w/batteries) and rugged. “The Leica BLK2GO is an economical, compact—but very powerful—workflow for really any problem that you can face in the geospatial world. It’s pretty transformational as far as what it can do for public safety agencies.”
Led by Josh Rayburn, mobile mapping manager for Leica Geosystems, along with Rezzelle, the workshop will take place on Wed., Feb. 26, from 1-3 p.m. and will repeat at 3-5 p.m. to give everyone at IAFSM 2020 a chance to attend.
Other Highlights of the IAFSM Conference Include:
- A Model for Innovative Use of 3D Geospatial Solutions by Lieutenant Anderson Shelton, of the Tennessee Highway Patrol Critical Incident Response Team. As one of the country’s most robust users of geospatial tools, the Tennessee Highway Patrol has become a model for the innovative use of 3D geospatial solutions, including scanning total stations, GNSS and UAVs.
Sunday:
- Basic Laser Scanning Certification Course. Ken Jones, training manager for the Leica Geosystems Public Safety Group and IAFSM treasurer, will be presenting a portion of the course.
Monday:
- Critical Elements of Bloodstain Pattern Documentation for Effective Reconstruction by Ken Jones, training manager for the Leica Geosystems Public Safety Group and Mike Russ, vice president of IAFSM. A short lecture will be followed by live demonstrations of blood pattern creation. Using laser scanners and BPA reconstruction software, students will perform practical exercises to reinforce forensically sound methodologies for the 3D documentation of blood patterns. MicroSurvey’s architect of the Map360 bloodstain pattern analysis tool, Forensic Product Manager Chenel Cordonier, will be on hand for the workshop.
- Critical Elements of Crash Scene Documentation for Effective Reconstruction by Joel Salinas, ACTAR, of Collision Forensic Solutions. Salinas has more than 33 years of experience investigating and reconstructing traffic collisions. He is a retired police lieutenant and worked for the California Highway Patrol and the Vallejo Police Department. As the department’s leading reconstructionist, he investigated and supervised the investigation of more than 1,000 traffic collisions.
Tuesday:
- Double Homicide Shooting—3D Scan to Plan Diagram in MAP360 including Trajectory Analysis presented by Detective Sergeant Brad Joice, commander of the York Regional Police Forensic Identification Unit in Ontario, Canada.
- Leica Geosystems’ Manufacturer’s Update showcasing visual inertial system (VIS) technology, BLK2GO, Cyclone REGISTER 360 BLK Edition, Map360 software enhancements for BPA/line tools, BLK3D integration and phone support with Cyclone Field, and BLK247 monitoring technology.
- Case Study—Best Practices Discussion by William Henningsen, manager/director of the Omaha Police Department Forensic Investigations Unit as well as a trainer and consultant with Collision Forensic Solutions. The presentation will focus on the best practices employed by the Omaha Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, both of which have a rigorous ISO accreditation standard that has been applied to their respective forensic mapping programs. The policies and procedures used by the Minnesota BCA were integral to getting scan data evidence, including a fly through, admitted in the Mohamed Noor trial.
Wednesday:
- Transforming Public Safety with Real-Time Handheld Reality Capture Workshop by Joshua Rayburn, mobile mapping manager for Leica Geosystems, and Ryan Rezzelle, manager for the Leica Geosystems Public Safety Group US & Canada. The presentation will feature the BLK2GO as well as other BLK series instruments, including the BLK360 imaging scanner and the BLK3D—a DISTO, 3D camera, and scanner controller in one. “During the presentation we are going to be using all three BLK instruments to show how each of the tools complement one another in both data collection and in the software environment,” Rezzelle says. During the workshop attendees will go hands-on with the instruments and work with data using laptops loaded with Cyclone REGISTER 360 post-processing software and JetStream Viewer.
- iNPUT-ACE Workshop. In 2020, most criminal and civil investigations will contain video evidence. When combined with 3D laser scanning, video evidence can help answer previously unanswerable questions. In this session, Brandon Wahl from iNPUT-ACE will demonstrate a simple and accurate methodology for leveraging 3D data and video evidence to calculate speed from vehicles, suspect height measurements, and provide 3D visual perspectives to the jury. Using data collected from the crash on Monday, Brandon will guide attendees through a live demonstration of accurately calculating the speed of the vehicle and integrating the video into a point cloud for powerful demonstrative exhibits for court. (RELATED: Watch this on-demand webinar to see how using point cloud with video evidence solved a double homicide.)
If you’re attending IAFSM 2020, be sure to check the final agenda and block out your calendar to participate in these informative sessions. To learn more about the solutions presented in these sessions and workshops or to schedule a consultation, please contact us.