This week’s topics certainly reawakened my inner scientist. Depth Sensing, Photogrammetry and Computational Photography undoubtedly have many applications in the entertainment and surveillance aspects of modern life. From AR games to self-driving cars, there are countless uses for these technological advancements, yet something I kept returning to was using these technologies, namely LIDAR, for mapping in the traditional sense—in GIS applications.
As someone without a current iPhone, or iPad Pro, I was curious how their LIDAR sensors worked and found this informative blog with GIFs of the tools in use:
https://blog.halide.cam/lidar-peek-into ... d38910e9f8. Though LIDAR fueled applications have yet to fully blossom, it appears as if gaming, real estate photography, and interior design, namely the Ikea app, are among the first to fully embrace this new tool.
According to
https://enterprise.dji.com/news/detail/ ... atial-data, here are a number of novel uses for LIDAR equipped drones including:
“Accident Scenes
LiDAR is an active system that uses ultraviolet, near-infrared light to image objects requiring no external light for effective mapping. For example, when monitoring an interstate pileup at night, a LiDAR-equipped drone can easily be deployed, making a single pass over the site.
As a UAV-based solution, accurate information with visible details will be returned instantaneously, which can then be admitted as evidence in court. On the ground, wreckers and sanitation crews can begin the process of cleaning up quickly, saving thousands if not millions of dollars by freeing up commuters and spending less on accident personnel.
Forestry
The production of paper, maple syrup, and other critical products require the efficient management of productive forests, yet managing these vast areas can be overwhelming due to their sheer size. Traditional methods for assessing a forest inventory are time-consuming and inefficient – at times relying on rough estimates for large areas. Using a LiDAR-equipped drone, foresters can measure canopy heights, coverage, tree density and even measure the location and height of individual trees.
This removes the guesswork and inefficiencies of traditional methods, with the added benefit of LiDAR being able to conduct these measurements even when human eyes cannot as they do not rely on natural light to operate.
Agriculture & Landscaping
On large scale farms, landscape 3D mapping has become crucial to implementing effective irrigation systems. For example, on large rice plantations, farmers need to build levees, which require accurate knowledge of the terrain for a system of levees to work. A LiDAR-equipped drone can collect data in a single pass allows farmers or consultants to progress through a large field quickly. Previous methods proved cumbersome and would involve waiting for the fields to dry up enough so that trucks could maneuver the terrain.”
Terrain modeling, archaeology and mine inspections are also discussed on the site.
NOAA has also adopted aereal LIDAR to monitor shorelines and flooding (
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lidar.html).