The New Technology Changing Development

Fuscoe Engineering has developed a new optical capture software that promises to change pre-development, redevelopment and construction. The firm’s proprietary software scans a property or development site with a drone and converts the image into a 3D model that is within a half-inch accuracy. Pat Fuscoe, founder and CEO at the firm who revealed the new technology at a San Diego CREW event last week, believes that the benefits of the software will disrupt the architecture, engineering and design industries. He is already working with major clients, from Caruso to the Irvine Co. We sat down with Fuscoe to find out more about the technology, how his clients are responding and how it is going to make a big impact.

GlobeSt.com: Tell me about this new technology that you have developed to change the surveying process for development?

Pat Fuscoe: The optical capture is what we call it. We go out and fly the drone for eight minutes over the property, stuck a thumb drive into our computer and made a 3D plot of the environment. Then, we converted into Revit and delivered it to the team the next day. It took two days and $3,000, and the client got something way better. Instead of a circle that says tree, you get a tree in the model. If you need to know how high it is, you can go into the model and get the measurement, and it is exactly right. It is faster; it is better quality; and it is cheaper. This is exponentially better.

GlobeSt.com: How would you survey a property without this technology? What is the current standard?

Fuscoe: Today, the conventional method is to hire a surveyor. The surveyor takes two weeks of field crew time measuring pools and decks and doors and sprinkler heads. It takes several days at $3,000 or $4,000 per day. Once that is done, someone in the office takes all of the notes and creates a map of everything. In the end, after a month’s time and $30,000 or $40,000 of cost, you get a 2D map of the property. So, a swimming pool is a rectangle drawn on the map, and it says pool; a tree is a circle that says tree.

GlobeSt.com: How have your clients responded to this new technology?

Fuscoe: Everyone that we are using it with gets totally floored and enamored with it. We fly the drone around the building and the neighborhood around it, and we scan the entire environment. We come back and make a 3D model of five blocks in each direction, and it includes everything—every hydrant and curb and gutter. Then we take the building that they are proposing to build and we stick it in the model virtually, and you can see in 3D what it is going to become. Because it is a model and not a picture, you can go into the model from anywhere you want and look at the building from anywhere in the model. So, for example, if someone lived two blocks away and is against the project, we can go to their house in the model and show them the building. So, this is a powerful tool in getting buildings approved. We are doing this every day now.

GlobeSt.com: Outside of site surveying, what are other applications of this technology?

Fuscoe: We use a camera to capture and environment that you can use. It can be inside a building or outside a building. We go inside beat-up old buildings, and wander around and take pictures. We can turn that into a 3D model, and we give that to the architect to start designing his or her remodel. It is huge. It would take weeks to produce that. Instead it is one day. And, you can do it with the video camera on your phone, and I can send you back a 3D model. The other benefit is construction. We are working with Caruso right now. They lay the pipes for the property, and then they lay concrete over it and it disappears. When people come in and lease space, they can’t figure out where the pipes are. They have to jackhammer the floor, and it costs a lot of money. Now, they call us before they pour the concrete, and we scan it all with one of our drones. We make a map, and it shows everything from the pipes to the smallest wire for a power line. You can measure it with a scale and know exactly where everything is. This is going to revolutionize that.

Globest.com: You are an engineer. How did you develop this proprietary technology that is changing your industry?

Fuscoe: We are a 200-person engineering firm. We ended up with this technology, and no one else in the country can do it. What happened was that a friend called me and asked if I would talk to someone who was looking at taking a job with a start-up in Silicon Valley. He came to my office and told me that the firm was developing a software that takes camera pictures and turns it into a scan and a 3D model with a half-inch accuracy. I was floored by the possibility of this. I told him to take the job because this would change the world. He took the job, and I followed him up there because this could revolutionize my business. I went up there and hung around for a year watching this program develop. I wanted it; I wanted to be the first guy to have it. So, I made a deal with him, and I paid $16,000 for them to make me a scan model of a hotel we were working on. In the end, after a year and a half, they couldn’t do it. They were on the five-yard line and they could not score. So, I quite. I came back to my team, and I said I am so sorry they just can’t bring it home. My people wanted to try. They took the program, and we figured it out. It cost me about $1 million in time and money, but we figured it out.