Digitisation is the process of capturing reality into digital formats. This transformation allows real-world objects and environments to be stored, accessed, and shared electronically. Digitisation plays a crucial role in industries like construction, architecture, and engineering, where accurate digital models are essential. This article will explore key digitisation methods and their impact on creating a reliable source of truth for various applications.
Capturing Reality in Digital Form
Digitisation involves converting physical objects or spaces into digital formats. This includes using techniques such as photogrammetry, reference and CAD files, Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs), and LiDAR. Each method captures different aspects of reality, helping to build detailed and accurate digital representations.
While these digitisation techniques offer powerful ways to capture and represent reality, each comes with its own pros and cons with file storage and performance requirements.
Understanding these trade-offs is crucial when choosing the right digitisation method. The choice often depends on the specific needs of the project, including the level of detail required, the available budget, and the hardware capabilities for managing large and complex files.
Creating a Source of Truth
Digitised data is a virtual representation that becomes a central source of truth. This model is a comprehensive digital representation of an asset’s physical and functional characteristics. like Building Information Modelling (BIM) information, it holds all the information for a building’s design from construction to management. It is a living document that evolves with the project, capturing every change and update.
These models serve as accurate references that can be used for various purposes:
Access from Anywhere
One of the biggest advantages of digitisation is how easily these digital models can be shared and accessed. Once reality is captured and transformed into a digital format, these assets can be transferred across the globe with just a few clicks.
Digitised models can be stored on secure cloud platforms, allowing easy access via URL links. Designers, engineers, students, and anyone with permission can interact with these digital assets on their devices. This accessibility opens up new opportunities for education, collaboration, and problem-solving:
Digital Twins for Ongoing Support
One of the most powerful applications of digitisation is the creation of digital twins. A digital twin is a dynamic, real-time digital replica of a physical object, system, or environment. This virtual model uses data collected through digitisation to simulate the performance and behaviour of its real-world counterpart.
Digital twins are valuable for ongoing support, training, and predictive maintenance. For example, in a building, sensors can feed data back into the digital twin, allowing facility managers to monitor performance, identify issues before they occur, and optimise maintenance schedules.
What Now
Digitisation is transforming how we capture and interact with reality. By creating accurate digital models, we establish reliable sources of truth that drive efficiency and accuracy in various fields. As technology continues to evolve, the integration of these digital assets into our workflows will only become more essential, enabling smarter designs, better decision-making, and more effective training and support systems.
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