When Alan Meadors walks into a fire scene with his Nikon camera, he’s likely to take anywhere from 200 to 300 photos in order to thoroughly document the scene. He captures this many to ensure that if he needs to review these photos in five months (which isn’t uncommon in fire investigations), he will understand exactly where in the house the photos were taken when he looks at them side by side. “I’m able to do that because I walked through the house and I took the photos,” Meadors said. “But if I gave an adjuster or attorney all my photos to go through, they’re going to get lost really quickly.”
Imagine this. Instead of sorting through still photos from a claim scene, you receive a virtual reality scan that captures immersive, high-resolution imagery from every angle of the property. First, you examine a floor plan of the property to get an idea of its layout. Then, you toggle to a different view, one that allows you to look down and into the property from overhead.
You choose how you want to enter this virtual property, whether through a side door, the front door or even the garage. Once inside, it is as if you’re actually walking through the property, with a complete line of vision, even though you’re exploring rooms and their contents from a desk in your office.
“If you’re looking at a virtual reality scan of a fire scene, you’re walking through it just like you’re there,” explains Meadors, a fire investigator for Donan currently testing this 3-D virtual scanning technology. “You know where you’re at in the property, and you know where the fire is coming from, especially if an investigator can walk you through and say, ‘look here, there are fire patterns in the hallway; they grow from this room and they get smaller towards the other end.’ It makes it really easy for an adjuster or courtroom to understand the environment in which the fire occurred.”
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The evolution of 3-D technology
To better understand 3-D virtual reality scanning technology, it helps to understand how it has evolved. Traditional 3-D scanning, or laser scanning, works by using a laser to measure the location of numerous individual points in a space. This data generates a digital 3-D model, and laser scanners are capable of capturing measurements to a very high level of accuracy. However, traditional 3-D scanners have been cost prohibitive, with prices typically ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 or more. Furthermore, they usually require operators with specialized training, and a single scan could take up to a full day to capture and process.
Enter 360-degree photography. If you’ve ever explored Google Street view, you’ve interacted with a 360-degree photo. These cameras capture photos in all directions, so the end-user can view that photo and see everything for a full 360 degrees.
You might think of this technology as a step beyond the panoramic photo taken by your smart phone. While 360-degree photos and video are not necessarily taking measurements or capturing dimensions, the end image is interactive and useful in visually exploring a space.
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3-D Virtual Reality Scans
The latest 3-D virtual reality scanning technology is a sort of hybrid model of 3-D scanning and 360-degree photography. Virtual reality is defined as a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way.
So why does this particular tech have such strong potential for application to the claims industry? There are many reasons including ease of use and the creation of an intuitive and interactive output. Essentially, the captured immersive model puts the adjuster into the claims’ scene (at least it feels that way).
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Applications
The 3-D capture hardware used in the introductory illustration contains multiple high-resolution camera sensors as well as infrared light sensors to measure distances. Software then combines the high-resolution imagery with a 3-D model generated from the measurements to produce an immersive 3-D model.
This immersive 3-D model allows claims professionals to virtually walk through a structure without ever being at the property. The technology has application throughout the P&C insurance industry, from underwriting and pre-loss through to claims or litigation. These include:
- Identifying and verifying content for desk adjusting. A scan can capture a property in its totality, and the high-resolution output means being able to more accurately identify contents in a home or business. It may also mean less time on site and quicker turnaround for claims where a scan can be examined by a desk adjuster.
- Compare pre-loss and post-loss scans. This provides a visual and immersive way to analyze damages and accurately identify materials and allow a property to be returned to its pre-loss condition. Pre- and post-loss scans may also assist in communicating repair recommendations or plans.
- Alleviate spoliation concerns. Scanning a property as soon as possible after a loss occurs means there is thorough and intact documentation of the scene prior to it being affected by weather, excavation, remediation or repairs. A scan of the complete scene post-loss will remain available and pristine for months or years should litigation or other needs arise that require revisiting the scene.
- Communicate findings from an onsite inspection. As Meadors described, a virtual reality scan means an engineer, fire investigator, field adjuster or other professional, can walk an adjuster through a claims scene to explain findings and point out areas of concern.
- Capture comprehensive documentation for fire losses, flood claims, personal or workplace injury, liability claims, underwriting and risk engineering. Virtual reality scans preserve a scene and the ability to understand a scene regardless of time passed.
Testing with this technology has identified additional unforeseen applications as well. Mark Bordelon is also a fire investigator for Donan. He explains that scans are particularly useful in communicating findings from unusual fire losses or those that resulted in a fatality.
Bordelon describes a fatal fire loss he investigated, where he captured a scan to clearly show where the victim was found in relation to the fire, but his scan caught something else too. “The woman who died in the fire had filled some prescriptions on the day of the fire. A lot of the pills were in her bedroom, the bottles were open, they weren’t sealed, and the scan captured a record of this.
We were able to determine which pills she took that day and whether any of them were new medications that she may have experienced a bad reaction to or that may have hit her hard,” Bordelon said. “The scan doesn’t miss anything, and it allows you the opportunity to go back and revisit the scene.”
The future of 3-D virtual reality scanning technology
Much of the recent development in virtual reality capture technology has been primarily directed at real estate applications. As the technology matures, there will be solutions specifically targeted to the insurance industry.
Augmented reality, the integration of digital information within a captured model, can be used to overlay additional information and details onto captured scans. Examples of this include displaying measurements, details about contents or materials, or even displaying proposed repairs over the damaged areas.
Computer vision and machine learning will likely be used to automate tasks such as identifying contents and materials, and extracting necessary measurements for quicker, easier adjusting. Eventually these capabilities will be developed so they tie directly into the claims software already being used, streamlining the process from capturing a scan to creating an estimate.
Utilization of 3-D virtual reality scans will allow insurers to more easily move toward a desk-adjusting model. Rather than wait to send a highly skilled and trained professional out to every claim, anyone, possibly even a property owner, could capture the site scan quickly and feed it back to an adjuster who can adjust the loss from anywhere.
This is especially true as this technology is integrated into smart phones. As the technology evolves and its use becomes more widespread, much of the process of creating estimates from scans will become automated, allowing an opportunity to further reduce claim cycle times.
Matt Kenney, P.E., CFEI, (mkenney@donan.com) is the technical program manager for DONAN.