Next generation cave mapping

[lleblanc]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/10 ... _backpack/

But can you crawl with it?

[Martin Sluka]

http://But can you crawl with it?

Wait 10 years, Luck! But the description of a cave is not only 3D inner surface, isn't it. ;o)

[KeyserSoze]

This is not the first instance of equipment that can achieve 3Dmapping in caves. I know a caver who was on a 3D mapping trip with equipment like this in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. The equipment that he observed was not attached to a backpack though. It will be interesting to see how this technology improves over the years. One day I will be the old man caver complaining about how easy the modern cavers have it with their new fancy equipment, "in my day we mapped with a compass and tape measure. We had to draw every cave passage. You people these days can do more work in one day than we could do in a year". How sad will it be when the new generation comes along and replaces all of that hard work with such ease.

[pub]

I think cave mapping is about to change radically. Anyone who has surveyed a cave, has wished there were an easier way to do it. Let's imagine a hand-held devise, like a video camera, that would let you map a cave, just as easily as shooting a video. That technology exists. Now if only the price were affordable. It is.

This video is using a laptop computer, and the equivalent of a *$200* Kinect game control camera. Wow.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RGBDvision# ... Rn34pmD5ww

Here's a fly through of (I think) the map made in the video above.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RGBDvision# ... u5Ywwb4RaU

Here they are mapping a single room. Watch the point cloud develop.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RGBDvision# ... 4wXflsoDrY

[Aaron Addison]

We have been investigating some of these types of technology. Some interesting things are afoot.

Cheers,

AA

[commanderzoom]

Wow, that thing's enormous!

I don't think I'll be able to learn cave mapping with all this new technology that comes out. I know I can handle the old school compass & tape measure method (just need someone to teach me or a book to read) but using computer programs to create maps? That sounds complicated. I definitely couldn't manage to take something like that beast into a cave without screwing it up--I bet nobody could unless they were in all huge borehole passages. Love to see what the technology for something like that looks like in 20 years, though.