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Tag Archives: LiDAR

Laser imaging helps make 3-D dinosaur models

Imagining dinosaurs in the flesh is tricky since the prehistoric subjects died out some 65 million years ago, but a new tool is helping to fill out the skeleton of T. rex and one of the largest-known duckbill dinosaurs, among other beasts.

Paleontologists used laser imaging technology called LiDAR for the first time to create 3-D computer models of five dinosaurs, including two of Tyrannosaurus rex, a spiny predator called Acrocanthosaurus atokensis, the ostrich-like Strutiomimum sedens and the plant-eating Edmontosaurus annectens, a hadrosaur or duckbill dinosaur.

via LiveScience- msnbc.com.

Posted 26 February 2009 † lasergeek § Cool Application ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:



Velodyne Lidal launched in Europe

Routescene has been granted distribution rights in the UK and Republic of Ireland for the groundbreaking Velodyne HDL-64 High Definition Lidar sensor.

The invention of the Velodyne HDL-64 High Definition Lidar sensor, which uses 64 lasers contained within a fast-spinning unit to create a true three-dimensional terrain map, marks a real revolution in the field of lidar technology.

Using the HDL-64 Lidar mobile sensor, a corridor of 220m can be mapped in great detail, as the unit collects over 1.3 million points per second. Each laser is individually calibrated in the factory prior to the unit being shipped to ensure that it achieves the highest degree of accuracy.

Since its successful utilisation by five of the six autonomous vehicles to complete the world-renowned DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007, the HDL-64 Lidar sensor has had a phenomenal uptake worldwide – and not just within the robotics industry.

It is the innovative technology of the HDL-64 Lidar sensor that is responsible for the stunning imagery in Radiohead’s music video promo for House of Cards. Meanwhile, car manufacturers are employing the technology to progress automated vehicle and collision avoidance research.

The HDL-64 Lidar sensor has also been chosen by US road inspection companies to complement existing road mapping technology. Other sectors that have expressed an interest in the potential of the HDL-64 Lidar sensor technology include the video games and animation industries.

Routescene’s Technical Director, Gert Riemersma, comments: “The HDL-64 Lidar sensor technology is very new in Europe and we are delighted to be able to offer our customers support and access to this innovative equipment.

“We are very excited by the range of possibilities offered by the HDL-64 Lidar sensor. Our main focus is to promote the technology within the geospatial industry, but we have already had numerous enquiries from other sectors. These are exciting times: we can now create high definition 3D models in a short space of time, an exercise that previously would have taken weeks to complete using traditional survey methods.”

For further information, please visit www.routescene.com, or contact Sue Hutchison on +44 (0)131 554 8073 or at sue.hutchison@routescene.com

Posted 24 February 2009 † suehutchison § Press Release ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:



Lasers Uncover Craters

Researchers have uncovered a pond-sized crater in the woods of central Alberta, Canada, carved out by a meteor that slammed into Earth about 1100 years ago. The technique they used to pinpoint the pit–a laser take on radar–figures to help scientists find evidence of hundreds of similar impacts that have remained hidden until now.

ScienceNOW.

Posted 03 December 2008 † lasergeek § Cool Application ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:



Laser illuminates fragile dinosaur footprints

HOW do you study several thousand dinosaur footprints spread across 2 kilometres of a soft-rock outcrop at a slant of 60 degrees? Zap them with a laser.

The footprints, at the Fumanya site in the southern Pyrenees in Spain, record the passage of huge long-necked dinosaurs called titanosaurs across a muddy area about 70 million years ago. The problem is that the footprint layer is soft and crumbling, and climbing the steep surface could damage the tracks.

So Phil Manning of the University of Manchester, UK, and his team scanned the surface with LIDAR – a laser technique that maps features in a similar way to radar. The scanner and allied software generated a detailed 3D contour map of the surface and prints (Palaeontology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2008.00789.x).

Via: NewScientist

Posted 17 July 2008 † lasergeek § Cool Application ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

House of Cards

Radiohead just released a new video for its song “House of Cards” from the album “In Rainbows”.

No cameras or lights were used. Instead two technologies were used to capture 3D images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR. Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

Watch the making-of video to learn about how the video was made and the various technologies that were used to capture and render 3D data.

Google Code

Posted 17 July 2008 † lasergeek § Laser Art ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Lasers unearth historical sites

Laser technology is being used to locate potential archaeological sites hidden by woodland in Worcestershire.

The hope is that ancient settlements and farms across the Wyre Forest will be detected by lasers fired from aircraft 3,300ft (1,000m) up.

The results are processed by computers and turned into images of the ground, currently hidden by trees.

The technique is known as Light, Detection and Ranging (LiDAR).

more…

Posted 23 January 2008 † lasergeek § Cool Application ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: