Help me identify this coppers tool

[Sump]

Opposite us we have a car wash, this morning 8-9 cop cars turned up randomly. 2 of them were scientific support vans and they had this odd looking tripod thing with flashing lights. I don't think it was a camera but it was like a big tripod with lots of black looking rectangles on it.

What the hell was it

[mmm-five]

Was it one of those 'new' 3d accident/crime scene scanners?

[randlemarcus]

That sort of thing?

[Joeguard1990]

You sure it was a car wash?

Maybe it was a front for a person trying to copy Breaking Bad...

[V8forweekends]

Sump said:

Opposite us we have a car wash, this morning 8-9 cop cars turned up randomly. 2 of them were scientific support vans and they had this odd looking tripod thing with flashing lights. I don't think it was a camera but it was like a big tripod with lots of black looking rectangles on it.

What the hell was it

From the two names in that picture -

http://www.faro.com/products/3d-surveying/laser-sc...

[Sump]

Nope it looked nothing like that. It was much bigger.

Maybe around 70 cm long and 50 cm wide? Pure black front with rectangle squares on a tripod. They had it planted in the middle of the car wash and then they were moving it around pointing it at different areas.




The tripod went into the back of this.

Edited by Sump on Monday 2nd March 14:00

[Sump]

Joeguard1990 said:

You sure it was a car wash?

Maybe it was a front for a person trying to copy Breaking Bad...

Well it's one of those questionable car washes.

[Drumroll]

Could have been a theodolite, used for measuring distances. Very from pretty basic to GPS connected and as already suggested 3D scanning

[markmullen]

Sump said:

The tripod went into the back of this.

A van?

[Sump]

markmullen said:

Sump said:

The tripod went into the back of this.

A van?

Thought it may narrow down the type of equipment that particular van would carry

[anonymous-user]

markmullen said:

A van?

[Carnage]

It's QTVR. Used for taking photos of crime scenes which can be stitched together and allows a jury to do a virtual walk through of a crime scene, a bit like Google street view.

[SpikeBmth]

What was the crime? Someone taking a cherished car into an automated car wash?

[GC8]

Its going to be a laser imager, but for me the question is less 'what?' and more 'why?'.