Ben Kacyra

And

CyArk

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Who is Ben Kacyra?

Ben Kacyra was born in 1940 in Mosul which is in northern Iraq and in 1964 immigrated to the United States and studied civil engineering at the University of Illinois.

Ben founded his company in the San Francisco Bay Area then sold it and created a new business Cyra Technologies where the aim was to create more proficient ways of surveying.

Efficient method of surveying buildings?

With frustration at the methods used when surveying buildings being inaccurate Kacyra wanted to find a more precise method to record a building as they can vary so much from their first blueprints.

Lasers are they the answer when surveying?

Lasers due to their precision were chosen by Kacyra and his team as the focus for finding a way to accurately record a building. A license for a type of laser developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the Star Wars missile defence system was gained in their quest for a better method.

Scanning to survey a building

Kacyra and his team used lasers timing how long it took for the laser to travel from a scanner to a surface and back again inventing a portable device to carry out this exercise. Their new technology was called time of flight scanning and solved the issues they were wishing to achieve with accurate recording of digital blueprints.

Scanning since the 1990s

From the 1990s onwards laser scanners based on Kacyra's time of flight scanning have been used to create 3D models of many different things from artificial limbs to aircraft.

Scanning a building structure

To monitor a building structural integrity laser scanners can be used to anticipate problems before they occur which can be essential when monitoring nuclear power plants or offshore oil platforms for example.

Kacyra's next venture

After selling his scanning patents Kacyra wanted another challenge nurturing the Kacyra Family Foundation with its head offices in Oringa in California which was focused on funding medical and energy research.

Archaeology and 3D laser scanning and the founding of CyArk

The Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley huge stone Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban at the turn of the 21st century made Kacyra wish that he had been able to carry out a 3D scan which would have left us with a record of these amazing statues which were lost.

War and natural disasters mean that many of the world's archaeological heritage is lost so Kacyra founded CyArk.

Digital Preservation of Structures

Kacyra with his new venture CyArk has a mission to via the web to allow access for everyone to share in the 3D scans. CyArk has collaborated with many such as Google, Leica Geosystems, museums and universities to scan sites.

The scans are so much quicker than the traditional surveying methods which can take months with a result from the laser scanning only taking a couple of hours and so precise.

The amazing and accurate scans have included sites such as sections of Pompeii, Chichen Itza, Rapa Nui, cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, medieval areas of the city of Merv in Turkmenistan.

The 500

Kacyra has an ambitious plan to scan 500 sites in the time frame of the next five years. With the 500 it will target structures to scan on endangered ancient sites but will also help inspire and motivate the development of local scanning technology centres around the globe.

Applications for 3D scanning structures

When scanning a building structure for example the laser scans can not only identify which components of the structure are at potential risk of collapse but also can identify hydrological analysis showing where water enters the structure.

Ted website talk – Ben Kacyra: Ancient wonders captured in 3D

Ben Kacyra took part in a TED talk filmed in Edinburgh outlining how as a child he had visited the Assyrian ruins of Nineveh and how this inspired him.

Fast forward then to San Francisco and his laser scanning technology and a demonstration of how it works collecting at speed millions of points (around 10,000 points a second where a traditional surveyor could record may be five hundred in a day) and generating an accurate 3D image of the structure being surveyed.

Ben Kacyra then goes onto explain how the Taliban destroying the enormous Buddha's inspired him further to record structures of significance for generations in the future to understand and appreciate many wonderful structures around the world – digital heritage preservation and the formation of CyArk.

Ben Kacyra outlines the speed in which many ancient sites are being lost not only to natural causes such as floods, earthquakes, tornados etc but the human acceleration by arson, urban sprawl, acid rain, terrorism and wars. This brought about his CyArk 500 Challenge plan accelerating with his network of global partners with a goal of a five year plan the recording of many significant structures.

In partnership too with locals in the areas they are to carry out 3D scanning taking the technology to the location with locals helping to preserve their sites and benefit from the technology in the future.

ted.com/talks/ben_kacyra_ancient_wonders_captured_in_3d.html

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Why we as Independent Surveyors always recommend that you have an independent building survey?

We believe in proficient surveying like Ben Kacyra!

Caveat Emptor means Buyer Beware and is why we strongly recommend you have a building survey carried out to find out if there are any problems with the property. The estate agent will certainly not advise you of any problems but we most certainly will! Our Building Surveyors working for you have your best interests at heart.

We use many photos and sketches in our surveys

What do our circles and ovals mean?

Take a look at our example surveys

We are more than happy for you to look at our example surveys. Please go to http://www.1stassociated.co.uk/media.asp .

We have surveyed most era types including Georgian and Regency properties, Victorian and Edwardian properties, Post War Years properties, Modern and New properties. We have also surveyed many public houses, shops, warehouses and even churches!

Commercial property surveyors

If you have a commercial property, be it leasehold or freehold, then you may wish to look at our Dilapidations Website at www.DilapsHelp.com and for Disputes go to our Disputes Help site www.DisputesHelp.com .

We hope you found the article of use and if you have any experiences that you feel should be added to this article that would benefit others, or you feel that some of the information that we have put is wrong then please do not hesitate to contact us (we are only human).

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