Reconstructing Dinosaur Fossils Using the FARO Laser Scanner
Reconstructing Dinosaur Fossils Using the FARO Laser Scanner
Paleontologists from the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History are working towards reconstructing the anatomy of missing bones of a juvenile Apatosaurus. With approximately only 15% of the bones collected, scientists look to digitally reconstruct the rest of the bone structure using the model of the adult Apatosaurus currently on display in the Museum. Reverse engineering the large skeleton would be the best solution.
Challenge
The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is home to one of most extensive paleontology collections of prehistoric specimens. Much of the scientific research for the museum is conducted by the Center for Shape Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing (SEAM). SEAM is a multi-university collaboration that has pooled together engineering resources to focus on creating and disseminating innovation. As one of SEAM’s members, the University of Oklahoma has been recently working with the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in a very unique application.
The paleontologists of the museum were tasked to reconstruct the anatomy of a juvenile Apatosaurus. Since only 15% of the bones had been collected, the remaining fossils would have to be anatomically created by the team of scientists. Traditionally, sculpting clay models by hand has always been common practice. However, using this process is extremely time consuming, often inaccurate and highly irreproducible.
As part of SEAM the University of Oklahoma assisted the museum’s paleontologists by providing an alternative solution. The university’s objective was to provide individual prototypes of each individual bone of the juvenile Apatosaurus for the paleontologists to create castings for the display model. The team decided to reverse engineer the current adult Apatosaurus skeletal model so they could proportionally create the missing bones of the juvenile dinosaur.
3D-Conference: Success across the board
More than 300 participants from 25 countries joined us at the 3D-Conference in Essen. There was a lot of knowledge to gain and a lot of experiences to share! One of our Keynote- Speakers expected this:
3D Conference Workshop XII: Tunnel Applications and Software
ATS RRTunnel (Rolf Berlin, ATS, Sweden)
Aplitop (Francisco Navarrete Mandly, Alpitop, Spain)
http://www.aplitop.com/webaplitop/
3D-Documentation of Railroad Tunnels (Assist. Prof. Almin Dapo Ph.D., Univ. Zagreb, Croatia)
When: 17–18 May 2011
Where:  Zeche Zollverein, Red Dot Design Museum, Gelsenkirchener Straße 181, 45309 Essen, Germany
 For more information read: www.3d-documentation-conference.com
 Register here and now: http://3d-documentation-conference.com/registration/
3D Conference: Workshop XI: Software- Autodesk
Â
Â
Â
Â
FARO Cloud for AutoCad (Matthias Koksch, Kubit, Germany)
http://www.kubit-software.com/
Â
Â
Civil 3D for Surveyors Navisworks for Point Cloud and CAD visualization (Roland Klement, Autodesk, Germany)
Plant 3D (Reiner Meier-Rössl, Autodesk, Austria)
Revit (Kyle Bernhardt, ADSK, USA)
When: 17–18 May 2011
Where:  Zeche Zollverein, Red Dot Design Museum, Gelsenkirchener Straße 181, 45309 Essen, Germany
For more information read: www.3d-documentation-conference.com
Register here and now: http://3d-documentation-conference.com/registration/Â
3D-Documentation Conference Workshop X: Mobile Mapping
Revolution of the new Road-Scanner MMS based on Faro-FOCUS 3D (Adani Fabio, Siteco, Italy)
http://www.sitecoinf.it/index_eng.htm
Â
Efficient 3D-Data Collection with Mobile Mapping Systems (Dr. Jens Krämer, IGI, Germany)
Â
Kinematic Engineering Surveying for 3D High End Applications (Gunnar Graefe, 3D-Mapping Technology, Germany)
http://www.3d-mapping.de/dynasite.cfm?dssid=4324
Â
When: 17–18 May 2011
Where:  Zeche Zollverein, Red Dot Design Museum, Gelsenkirchener Straße 181, 45309 Essen, Germany
For more information read: www.3d-documentation-conference.com
Register here and now: http://3d-documentation-conference.com/registration/
Â
3D-Documentation Conference Workshop IX: Civil Enginering, Architecture and Heritage Documentation
Only 19 days left! Register now: http://3d-documentation-conference.com/registration/Â
When: 17–18 May 2011
Where:  Zeche Zollverein, Red Dot Design Museum, Gelsenkirchener Straße 181, 45309 Essen, Germany
 For more information read: www.3d-documentation-conference.com
 Workshop IX:
2D, 3D and 4D-Documentation Cases for Architecture, Archeology and Civil Engineering (Vicente Bayarri, GimGeomatics, Spain)
http://www.gim-geomatics.com/
Â
3D-Documentation of Buildings for BIM using REVIT (Ben Benett, Digital Survey, UK)
http://www.digitalsurveys.co.uk/
Efficient 3D-Documentation with Revit Architecture and Point Cab (Johannes Rechenbach, Rechenbach Architects, Germany)
Fortbildungsveranstaltung für Mitglieder der Architektenkammer in NRW
Information: Das 1. Intenrationale Fach- und Anwenderforum für 3D-Dokumentation in Essen wird von der Architektenkammer Nordrhein-Westphalen unter der Registrier-Nummer: 11-1453-001 als Fortbildungsveranstaltung (6 Stunden á 45 Minuten) für die Bereiche Architektur, Landschaftsarchitektur und Stadtplanung anerkannt.
3D-Documentation for movie production sets and event locations
 Speaker: Dr. Johannes Steurer, Arri, Germany
Many film productions and live events require a high degree of modifications and extensions by means of computer     graphics. These so called visual effects need to be integrated seamlessly with the live action images in photorealistic appearance. 3D laser scanning is becoming an interesting way of capturing the 3D shape of a the scene as well as the positions of cameras and microphones for sophisticated visual effects.
Johannes Steurer is Principal Engineer in the R&D department of Arnold & Richter Cine Technik. Currently his main task is to evaluate existing technologies for 3D acquisition in the field of motion picture applications and to lead the research on new 3D technologies at Arri, comprising stereo-3D, 3D laser scanning, and other new technologies for depth sensing.
He is recipient of several awards including two Cinec Awards and one Scientific and Engineering Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2002.
We welcome Dr. Steurer at our 3D-Documentation Conference and invite you to join us:
When: 17–18 May 2011
Where: Zeche Zollverein, Red Dot Design Museum, Gelsenkirchener Straße 181, 45309 Essen, Germany
For more information read: www.3d-documentation-conference.com
Register here and now: http://3d-documentation-conference.com/registration/Â
