The possible applications for 3D point clouds are almost endless. When you think of LiDAR, the mind naturally wanders to autonomous vehicle navigation or geospatial survey type applications. In fact, navigation and LiDAR data are useful for all manner of applications. But, how is navigation data used for video game development?
From the OxTS blog.
When a new technology, such as LiDAR, is first brought to market, a number of factors affect the price. Initially, the cost-per-unit is likely to be high to account for the the recovery of research and development costs. However, as technology ages and manufacturers innovate and bring out new versions, price invariably comes down over time.
As this process occurs it puts the technology into the hands of a much wider audience. As a result, the number of new and innovative use cases also increases.
To create a 3D point cloud, users must combine the position, navigation and timing measurements from an Inertial Navigation System (INS) with raw LiDAR data when collected dynamically. Without accurate INS data it is impossible to create a point cloud. This is because the LiDAR sensor needs to know where it is, when in time it is and its orientation.
To avoid complicated software engineering work, simple to use software, such as OxTS Georeferencer, is available to georeference the LiDAR data. Once georeferencing is complete, OxTS Georeferencer will create a PCAP file that users can view in many pointcloud viewer software applications.
Point clouds are useful for many wide and varied reasons. Autonomous vehicle developers may use point clouds to aid object detection and avoidance, while geospatial surveyors may want to use a pointcloud to determine road degradation over time or monitor the rate of coastal erosion.
But how can navigation data be used in applications such as video game development? Lets first look at how navigation data works alongside LiDAR.
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