From Naval Disaster to Startup Success: How a Veteran is Revolutionizing 3D File Sharing

The USS Bonhomme Richard Incident

In the summer of 2020, a devastating fire broke out on the USS Bonhomme Richard, a naval ship docked in San Diego Bay. For over four days, the ship was engulfed in flames as firefighters and helicopters struggled to control the blaze. Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) scans were quickly taken to assess the damage and investigate the fire's cause.

The Challenge of Sharing Lidar Data

Unfortunately, the investigation faced delays due to the difficulty of sharing massive lidar files. Leading cloud storage services like Google Drive, DropBox, iCloud, and OneDrive don't support these large files, which can sometimes reach multiple terabytes. As a result, the naval unit had to send thumb drives and Blu-ray discs with the scans to authorities across the country.

The Birth of Stitch3D

This challenge inspired Clark Yuan, a U.S. Army veteran, to create Stitch3D. This innovative browser-based platform allows users to view, share, annotate, and manage large 3D files. Each file is stored as a “point cloud,” a digital representation of a 3D scene made up of millions of points with x, y, and z coordinates. If Stitch3D had been available during the USS Bonhomme Richard incident, sharing the lidar scans would have been significantly easier.

A Solid Foundation

Yuan, who has experience working with lidar systems, recognized the inefficiencies in transmitting these files during his service. The U.S. military considers lidar scans crucial for preparing accurate maps and equipment for missions. Lidar technology enables the creation of 3D mappings by measuring the time it takes for light beams to bounce back from surfaces, providing detailed information about terrain that 2D images cannot.

Source: Stitch3D

Funding and Future Applications

Stitch3D has secured a $1.8 million grant from the Air Force to develop its technology securely, along with a $750,000 pre-seed round from friends and family. The Air Force intends to use it for measuring coastal erosion and assessing damage to airfields.

However, Yuan envisions a broader application for Stitch3D beyond military use. In a demonstration with TechCrunch, he showcased how the platform could allow users to navigate detailed 3D maps of college campuses, measure dimensions, and annotate areas with notes and colors.

Source: Stitch3D

Expanding Horizons

Yuan believes Stitch3D could benefit various industries that utilize lidar, including forestry, mining, architecture, land surveying, and oil drilling. There’s also potential for integration with augmented reality (AR), allowing users to create interactive scans using the lidar sensor on their phones. While this technology is still developing, Yuan is optimistic about its future possibilities.