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A 60th Anniversary Flagship Project

Mid-2023, CAPA-Auriela Dealey Plaza Digital Twin developer Irving Nestor learned of the talks about changing Dealey Plaza drastically from its current near-unchanged form. As the owner of a film, media and marketing business, he knew he could convert the current physical state of the Plaza into a forensically valid 3D model to preserve the space-- as long as there was funding.

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That's when CAPA came in. CAPA (Citizens Against Political Assassinations), an esteemed group of JFK Assassination research devotees and legends of the time, agreed to fund the project when presented with the concept. The rest is history.

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Watch Irving's inaugural presentation of this historic project at the CAPA-Wecht Institute 60th Anniversary dinner.

Introducing the CAPA-Auriela Dealey Plaza Digital Twin, a comprehensive preservation and research data set that offers sub-centimeter accuracy. The data set includes LiDAR and drone photogrammetry raw data, with pre-calculated 3D models, making it perfect for a range of research and educational purposes such as ballistic modeling, acoustic modeling, documentary animation, historical reconstruction and much more.

The full data set is available for licensing from CAPA for a very affordable price. See licensing options by clicking the link below.

The CAPA-Auriela

Dealey Plaza Digital Twin

LiDAR is captures fine detail more prevalent on the ground.

  • Trees, overhangs, alcoves, dark areas, etc. are accessible

  • 360-degree visual spectrum panoramas taken simultaneous to each scan

  • 411 LiDAR scans with 10 million point measurements per scan

  • Color calibration cards present in each panorama

  • User-friendly web-based previewing via Matterport

  • Standardized scan height to the average human male of the 1960s

  • Pre-stitched and lighter data set for computation and viewing

  • Equipment: Matterport Pro3

Ground-Based LiDAR Scan

PPK Drone Photogrammetry

Drones allow us to gather spatial data with more positional freedom.

  • Roofs, building details, overpasses, etc. are accessible and without interference from ground objects

  • High resolution & quality visual spectrum photography

  • Large ground coverage

  • GPS metadata and PPK base station data increases reference accuracy to the real world and reduces photogrammetry computational load

  • 10,409 photos taken of entire subject area at varying altitudes and angles

  • Equipment: Mavic 3 Enterprise & RTK Module (using its wide angle lens)

FREE PREVIEW VIA MATTERPORT

What's included in the data set:

RAW DATA

  • e57 containing 411 LiDAR scans (with 6 visual spectrum images per scan)

  • Matterpak proprietary data package containing an .xyz cloud and raw images

  • 10,409 images (.RAW) containing GPS and lens metadata

  • Contemporary PPK public base station data from TxDOT

  • DJI & Dronelink Flight Logs

1st ORDER PRE-COMPUTED DATA​

  • Manually collated PPK data formatted/ upgraded to the RINEX 3.04 standard

  • PPK GPS correction data for general use and common software formats

2nd ORDER PRE-COMPUTED DATA

  • e57-based point cloud (via RealityCapture)

  • PPK photogrammetry point cloud (via RealityCapture)

3rd ORDER PRE-COMPUTED DATA

  • Combined e57 & photogrammetry point cloud (via RealityCapture)

  • Combined e57 & photogrammetry orthoprojection

  • Full 3D mesh with 1.5 billion polygons

  • Processing logs & final software report

CONVENIENCE MODELS

  • Textured decimated 3D mesh with 30 million polygons for display on powerful machines

  • Textured decimated 3D mesh with 4 million polygons for responsive display

SYSTEMATIC PROCESS​

  • Data was collected according to pre-calculated tolerances

  • Automated flight plans are available for inspection

  • Locations of interest (e.g. the Grassy Knoll) given priority in simulating historical lighting conditions

CAREFUL CALIBRATION

  • Color calibration available for every ground image

  • High quality GPS corrections collected for Post Processing Kinematics

  • Manually laser measured control points at specific landmarks for confidence

TRANSPARENCY

  • Full methodology, raw data and field notes available in data set

  • Models are calculated for forensic consistency and accuracy, not aesthetics or results

Captured with a

forensic mindset

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