I’ve been messing around with phone-based “scanners” for a little over a decade, first messing with Autodesk’s 123D Catch circa 2012. I’ve tried many other apps, and while most of them performed well with highly textured objects like statues and rocks, none of them could handle cars well enough to earn a place in my toolkit.

A worthy phone-based scanner

Things changed when Apple put a LiDAR sensor on the iPhone 12 Pro (and 2020 iPads), giving EveryPoint access to additional data that ultimately led to the development of an algorithm fusing photos and LiDAR data. As a result, they’re able to create more detailed point clouds of all sorts of objects, including shiny objects without much texture (like cars). When our esteemed colleague Eugene Liscio teamed up with EveryPoint the world got access to an app based on the algorithm, and tailored toward forensics, called Recon-3D.

The app can be had for $399/year or $50/month and has shown to be pretty darn accurate (thanks, yet again, to Jarrod Carter). I’ve generated many point clouds with Recon-3D and down the line will likely put out a post showing some of the results and case studies, but to stick with the philosophy of this short weekly email, I’m done for today!

Enjoy the holiday weekend; thank you to all that have served and sacrificed.

Lou Peck
​Lightpoint | Axiom​

P.S. This tutorial showing how to quickly calculate and display crush using point clouds pairs well with the above.