Laser scanning or lidar technology is used in many fields. Maybe it is because of this wide range of applications that there are scant comprehensive resources on the subject. Even within a single field of application, such as terrestrial or aerial laser scanning, it is hard to make comparisons between the technological solutions and their capabilities. Taking a different approach, the recently published book Introduction to Pointcloudmetry (Whittles Publishing) from Mathias Lemmens describes point cloud technology and its place within the wider geomatics field. This means that interested readers will learn what exactly do sensors measure, how they do this, for which purpose and how these measurements are transformed into accurate 3D mapping data.
From an article in Geo Week News by Eric van Rees.
Complementing disciplines
While the term “pointcloudmetry” may sound odd and idiosyncratic, it logically follows from the fact that both photogrammetry and laser scanning can complement each other in practice, hence the author’s decision to focus on how both technologies are related. The term, coined by the author himself, encompasses the technologies for obtaining accurate and detailed information about earth-related objects, including the bare earth surface, by acquiring and processing point clouds.
In the preface of the book, the author writes that the rapidly growing importance of point clouds is not yet reflected in a substantial number of textbooks. Also, existing books on the topic stem from conference papers written in an academic tongue directed towards peer experts, which affects coherency in terminology and elucidation of concepts. The book is an attempt to solve these problems and provide a single source on point clouds for an audience of geography and geomatics students, GIS analysts, geo-scientists and practitioners using geodata in their daily work. Readers are assumed to have basic knowledge of mathematics and statistics, as the text includes many examples that use both.
For the complete review CLICK HERE.
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