- LizardTech has announced a new LiDAR data compression product – aptly named the LiDAR Compressor.
- The claim is 25% of the original size with no loss, and 10% if you will accept virtually lossless.
- The key issue is whether the software vendors will support the new format.
LizardTech, the company known for its MrSID image compression file format has just announced the LiDAR Compressor. The press release claims that they are able to retain 100% of the raw data at 25% of the original file size, or if you are willing to accept some loss, then they can achieve up to 90% compression without any perceptible changes in the data. Perceptible is defined by them as having a RMSE less than that of the sensor, on average. They term this “virtually lossless”.
As with any data compression scheme there are always going to be concerns and questions. LiDAR data files are huge to begin with and they are only going to get larger as the instruments get faster. Saving disk space is not the concern that it used to be, but this could be of value to a certain group of customers. The MSRP is $2,995 for a single user.
The Compressor is storing the data in the next generation of MrSID, which is being termed MG4. It appears to work on LAS 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 file formats, plus ASCII. An SDK is available to add support to software applications in order that they can work directly with MG4. This is one of the key value issues – will the vendors add this support?
Let me know what you think.
LizardTech was also supportive of libLAS by providing funding for a number of improvements to the library which it in turn used for LAS support for MG4 and the LIDAR compressor. Head to http://www.lizardtech.com/blog/2009/lizardtech-engineering%E2%80%99s-introduction-to-lidar-compressor/ to find out more about the technology.
Thanks Howard.
Gene,
If you’re at the ESRI Conference, stop by our booth (#511) and I’d be happy to give you a demo of our LiDAR Compressor. Alternatively, visit our web page at http://www.lizardtech.com/products/lidar/trial.php and you can download a free, fully functional 30-day trial to try it for yourself.
Regarding your comment about application support, we’re working hard with GIS vendors to ensure that they add support for our newest version of MrSID just as they have with our previous versions.
Best regards,
Jon Skiffington
Director of Marketing
LizardTech
Hi Jon,
I was there over the weekend, but I have left. Thanks for the info.
Gene
In case all the LIDAR data that you want to compress happens to be in LAS format, then you can consider laszip.exe that is part of the LAStools package (http:://www.cs.unc.edu/~isenburg/lastools) as a cost free alternative that also delivers much better compression rates.
Hi Martin,
Thanks for the info.
Gene