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American Morning
America's New War: Scientists Now Using Digital 3-D Images to Help Searchers Navigate World Trade Center Site
Aired September 27, 2001 - 09:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Scientists are now using digital 3-D images to help searchers navigate the World Trade Center site. Joining us now to talk about that is Jeff Leonard, president of Earth Date International.
Good to have you with us, sir. Welcome.
JEFF LEONARD, PRESIDENT, EARTH DATA INTERNATIONAL: Thank you, Paula. Good to be here.
ZAHN: Can you describe to us what your company is doing?
LEONARD: Yes, Paula. We were contacted by the New York State Office of Technology on 15th September to fly a censors over the disaster area to assist the rescue workers in their efforts.
ZAHN: And we have some aerial images that is your company has come up with to punctuate what you are talking about here. How useful is that information? I don't know if you can see the same picture I'm looking at now. But what kind of aid does this give rescue workers.
LEONARD: It's an extremely useful tool for the rescue workers, Paula. The imagery that we're capturing is fortho-rectified (ph), which means it's been made map accurate, so they can take precise measurements off this imagery. They can overlay other types of data, like the locations of steam lines and gas lines to see if there are any dangers there.
ZAHN: Jeff, before you go any further, yes, I was going to ask you to describe, what does the green mean? What does the yellow mean here?
LEONARD: What you're looking at now is a thermal image. We're also flying thermal imagery over the sight. This is from two separate days. The green images are the extent of the underground fires on the 16th, and the yellow images, you can see very clearly that the rescue workers are making some progress in their battle against the fires. The yellow images are from the 22nd, and you can see the expanse is much smaller.
ZAHN: So without this technology, basically you'd be digging in the dark, so to speak.
LEONARD: So to speak, yes.
ZAHN: How long will these flights continue?
LEONARD: We have been asked by the New York State Office of Technology to continue our flights on a daily basis through the first week of October, and then perhaps on a less frequent basis thereafter. However, that has not been determined as of yet.
ZAHN: When you try to assess what all the images are telling rescue workers, what conclusions have you drawn about the instability of the site?
LEONARD: Well, there's -- I haven't drawn any conclusions actually. We're providing the data to a host of agencies and universities, et cetera, who are analyzing the data. However, a number of the sensors we're flying, like the light detection and ranging, which is a laser-profiling system, which gives us a three- dimensional view of the battlespace, if you will, allows them to make a number of determinations with regard to the amount of rubble, the volume of rubble that may be laying up against, or on top of other buildings, so the structural engineers can determine if there is any potential structural danger there, and...
ZAHN: So, Jeff, basically, what you are saying is this technology can save lives.
LEONARD: That is our hope, yes.
ZAHN: You also have a composite that I'd like to share with our audience now, and I guess it's 3D animation of what the World Trade Center once looked like, and what it looks like today. Walk us through what these various colors are signifying.
LEONARD: OK, what you saw in the first image is a three- dimensional representation of the site from the Lidar (ph) system. And like I said, the Lidar system is a laser-based system that works much like a radar. It fires a light beam, that light beam bounces off object, and we can tell precise location where that object is from that.
This scene has been colorized with the higher altitudes, or the higher levels of elevation being colored blue, down to red that you see. That was done about a year before the incident.
ZAHN: Let's go to next picture now. And, obviously, strikingly different and horrific to look at.
LEONARD: Yes, certainly.
ZAHN: What can we learn from this image?
LEONARD: Well, a number of things can be learned from this image. Well, obviously, you see that the blue building is no longer one of the World Trade Centers, and we can compute very accurately the amount of rubble, the volume of rubble. The rescue workers can -- since we're doing this on a daily basis, the rescue workers can see the volume of rubble decreasing. You can imagine it must be a very daunting task to look at that huge pile of rubble, but this can actually give them a bit of heartening in terms of they are making progress, rescue workers, trail through the rubble can be mapped out, if you will, as a result of these three-dimensional models.
ZAHN: Jeff, I know from talking to a number of rescue workers in "the pile," as they now call it, they're extremely grateful for any of this technology that enhances their safety. We appreciate your coming along this morning to share that with us.
LEONARD: Thank you, Paula. It's my pleasure.
ZAHN: Good luck to you.
LEONARD: Thank you.
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