You may have seen ads for the new Lexus LFA sports car that touts the car company’s relentless pursuit of perfection. There is even a engineering breakthrough Web page where the company highlights some of the ways they broke ground with the production of the vehicle, including a custom robotic loom to weave carbon fiber.
The detailed insight into the engineering process is a nice geeky diversion, but the one area that really intrigued me is the capture and use of digital photographs for vehicle inspection. The cars undergo a three-hour painting process that involves six-coats of paint. After that process a robot captures “macro” photographs of the paint surface for inspection by 100 quality agents that look for flaws and catch inconsistencies.
This close inspection speeds up the QA process, and aid the inspectors in finding flaws that the human eye alone can’t see. There are parallels here for the utility of other forms of imagery for close inspection and quality insurance. On the truly macro scale, imagery of Earth applies the same concept for the monitoring and mitigation of disasters, allowing policy inspectors to ensure that we’re creating the best possible planet.
