It’s often valuable to have high-quality, historical imagery of a collision site, especially when you’re hired two to three years after the crash. Most of us are accustomed to relying on tools like Google Earth/Street View to determine how the AOI may have changed between the time of the incident and our inspection, or to search for roadway evidence that's since vanished, but there are some more advanced options available as well.

​Nearmap is one such tool that I’ve been using for nearly a decade now (thanks to Eric Deyerl for the introduction), and it’s very impressive. As opposed to satellite imagery, their database is comprised of images captured via aircraft, so the resolution is improved. Additionally, the capture schedule is pretty darn frequent (in urban areas, anyway). For example, Lightpoint’s HQ has been photographed seven times in the past 18 months. The imagery has also been rectified and scaled, so it can be used to generate basic measurements and I often use it to supplement, or preliminarily found, simulations and diagrams. The most rewarding use is going back in time and finding roadway evidence from an old crash. Doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it’s huge.

​EagleView is a similar company worth checking out, but I don’t have any direct experience with them. Another WILD and related company to keep an eye on is Sky Fi…for a few hundred bucks you can task a satellite to take imagery of a specific area within a few weeks. The future is going to be crazy. I wonder if most crashes will eventually be captured via satellite video?

Keep exploring,

Lou Peck
​Lightpoint | Axiom

P.S. Last week’s email was about creating X-ray graphics using NUBIGON and MeshLab. Andre Doria reminded me of this Blender plug-in, which can also create polished X-ray renderings, and it’s only $75. Thanks Andre!