- You had to search a bit to uncover the innovation at Spar this year, but it was there.
- earthmine and INOVx were offering new strategic partner programs.
- ClearEdge3D and Pinpoint 3D were both building 3D CAD models from point clouds – automatically.
I had a couple of people tell me that they thought there was a lack of exciting news events that came out of Spar this year, as compared to some others. I am sure that had more to do with the economy than anything else, but I think there were a number of innovative ideas and technologies if you were willing to do a little digging.
As I mentioned quickly last week, earthmine announced their partner program.
I really like the company tag line, “indexing reality” and their claim that they are the link between information and places. I know from a couple of conversations that they are making deals with serious industry players. The technology is being licensed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion. I am still not clear on how they intend to compete with the Microsoft’s and Google’s, but they are certainly worth investigating as a possible business opportunity. They do offer exclusive geographic territories.
There were 2 interesting software start ups on the trade show floor – ClearEdge3D and Pinpoint 3D, both claiming to automatically extract 3D CAD models from point clouds. As we have discussed in the past this is the “holy grail”, and although I think they have both made some progress under a set of limited conditions, the search goes on. Both are worth a look. I will let you draw your own conclusions, but they are heading in the right direction.
A company that is a leader in automated feature extraction within the process plant environment is INOVx.
They announced a laser scanning partner certification program. Their brochure states that the current industry capacity is not keeping up with the demand for services. In response, INOVx is offering a comprehensive training program that can result in your firm becoming an INOVx CSP – Certified Service Provider. You get trained in their software, project methodology and, if schedules permit on the job training. Plant is the largest market for laser scanning services, and you would be learning from the leader. Definitely worth investigating.
