Capturing Reality - Episode 25 | Derek Lawrence

Construction Disrupted

A picture is worth a thousand words was a statement invented by an advertising executive, Fred R. Barnard in 1921. We’ve come a little bit further than static images in the one hundred and two years since then, with technological advancements within both digital and imagery. 3D is now a reality, virtual walk-thoughts are possible and project management (what was once lines on a spreadsheet) can be brought to life in a visual presentation backed by data.

There are so many visual tools available it’s difficult to keep track and with the exponential growth and development in AI, this doesn’t look like stopping. We’re just beginning.

This is not to say that all of them will stand the test of time, history tells us that the cream will always rise to the top, even when there is little competition - think Betamax v VHS, HD DVD v BluRay or Playstation and Xbox still battling it out.

But how does this happen? Is it simply survival of the fittest, the best tech wins out? Or do we look to the experts to make these types of decisions for us and we follow? Within construction, it is never that simple as one size never fits all. So what we tend to rely on are people who know more about the tech than we do, people who can spot the good from the bad in terms of what is right for a particular organisation and for particular scenarios. This is where today's guest joins the party.

We’re joined by Derek Lawrence, a Chartered Building Services Engineer and Reality Capture Consultant, with experience in the the design and operation of the built environment. Derek advises organisations on the benefits and practical implementation of reality capture, AR (Augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and photogrammetry technologies.

Derek, in his own words is ‘absorbed with the idea that reality capture will positively impact the way we design and shape our built environment’ and as you can imagine Derek has a wide and deep understanding of evolving digital tools and techniques that will improve the way we design, procure, build, operate and decommission our built environment.

But we can go a little further than this as Derek is equally interested in the artistic 'misuse' of technology, providing a 'what's the point in this technology' approach to his work, or as Derek likes to summarise ‘I play with technology’.

Topics Covered

- What is photogrammetry

- The technology behind it and barriers to entry

- The process from onsite to end result

- Reality capture - Looks cool, but what’s the point?

- The mundane examples and the beneficial ones

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Website: https://www.builddifferent.marketing/

Further Links

https://www.ukconstructionweek.com/speakers/derek-lawrence

https://www.iwfm.org.uk/community/events/the-digital-twin-journey-series-part-two.html

https://www.autodesk.com/campaigns/reality-capture

https://www.autodesk.co.uk/solutions/photogrammetry-software#:~:text=Photogrammetry%20is%20the%20art%20and,2D%20or%203D%20digital%20models.