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Industry News
- NDEP Lidar Accuracy Guidelines
We often get requests for details whenever we mention the NDEP guidelines in conversation. The following summary is excerpted from the white paper Issue 37: Quality Control of Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) Elevation Data in North Carolina for Phase II of the NCFMP by Gary Thompson, North Carolina Geodetic Survey, and David Maune, Dewberry & Davis LLC.
"In 2002, the National Digital Elevation Program (NDEP) established guidelines that specifically address LIDAR and the fact that the RMSE process is inappropriate for many land cover categories except for open terrain where there are no valid reasons why errors should not follow a normal error distribution. The NDEP guidelines specify Fundamental Vertical Accuracy at the 95% confidence level, computed by multiplying the RMSEz by 1.9600, for open terrain only; this establishes the fundamental accuracy of the LIDAR sensor in open terrain. Additionally, the NDEP establishes both Supplemental Vertical Accuracy for other individual land cover categories, and Consolidated Vertical Accuracy in all land cover categories combined, using the 95th percentile errors to determine vertical accuracy at the 95% confidence level. This allows 5% of the checkpoint errors to exceed the established standard for Accuracyz. The Supplemental Vertical Accuracy establishes the vertical accuracy in land cover categories, other than open terrain, where there may be legitimate reasons why errors do not follow a normal distribution; this determines how well the sensor performed, as well as the effectiveness of the post-processing used to establish "bare earth" elevations. The Consolidated Vertical Accuracy does the same for all combined land cover categories representative of the area being mapped."
- .LAS Binary Lidar
Data exchange Format To Be Approved By ASPRS
An open-source binary format for the storage,
manipulation, analysis and exchange of lidar data is scheduled to
be approved by ASPRS at its upcoming annual conference in May. This
format, referred to as .LAS, is based on a standard format developed
by an industry consortium including EnerQuest, Optech, Leica, Z/I,
Sanborn and the US Army Corps of Engineers. The details of
the format have been published in recent issues of PE&RS and
while it is still open for public review and comment, initial
indications are that it will be approved with no changes. Further
information can be found at www.lasformat.org.
- DeLorme Acquires Leica's Lidar/Digital Camera Suite
DeLorme Publishing, a leading innovator in digital mapping and geospatial data collection and distribution, has purchased two advanced airborne sensors from Leica Geosystems – the Leica ADS40 Airborne Digital Sensor and Leica ALS40 Airborne Laser Scanner. The two systems will give DeLorme, a mapping software and navigation hardware provider, the advantage of simultaneously capturing high quality images and digital elevation data using a unique combination of high-resolution digital imagery and lidar. The complete airborne platform, named TopoBird, includes a specially equipped twin engine turboprop aircraft that will house the Leica ALS40 and ADS40 sensors. If you haven’t been following Delorme’s recent mapping activities you may want to review their plans to map all major metropolitan areas in the US with both airborne and ground-based sensors. We love the combination of lidar with high-end digital imagery. A very interesting program, especially in light of the government’s 133 Cities initiative. There’s information on the TopoBird web site and a recent article in their newsletter. Love the logo!
- Optech Announces Teaming Agreement with Thales GeoSolutions
On March 3, 2003 Optech, Inc. one of the world's leading manufacturers of laser-based survey instruments announced a teaming agreement with Thales GeoSolutions (Pacific) Inc. (TGPI), supporting the provision of airborne lidar bathymetry survey services using the SHOALS-1000T sensor. A total integrated coastal mapping solution, SHOALS-1000T is Optech's fourth-generation airborne lidar bathymetric survey system, capable of 1,000 IHO Order 1 water depth soundings per second and 10,000 coastal terrain elevation measurements per second from a built-in topographic lidar subsystem. Oh great, just when we had our database straightened out, now we have to go and make a category for laser bathymetry sensors with built-in 10 kHz topo mapping capabilities. Guess we will count it as a topographic mapping sensor ..... :-)
- TopoSys
Marketing "Falcon" Sensor
TopoSys GmbH has been quietly promoting sales of its unique lidar mapping sensor, trade name Falcon, for several years now. The sensor is based on a pulsed laser/fiber scanner push-broom configuration operating at 1.55 microns as opposed to the more standard 1 micron sensors. The unique design of their sensor allows extremely dense ground sampling at the equivalent of 83 kHz sample rate. It is also tightly integrated to a digital line scanner. If you have ever seen any of their data samples, you know how effective this combination can be. More information is available on their web site.
- TerraImaging Deploys Latest Optech Sensor
In February 2003
TerraImaging announced it is now deploying Optech's latest laser scanner, the ALTM 2050, on their new projects. Two prominent features of this new system are 50 kHz laser repetition rate and an integrated digital metric camera system, the ALTM 4k x 4k. With this camera digital aerial photographs can be made simultaneously with altitude laser measurements. The digital photo images are georeferenced and available in colour and colour-infrared. This new system has already been used by TerraImaging on a large scale laser project in Belgium. In the project area (over 3.500 km² including Antwerp, Gent, Brugge and Oostende) both laser measurements and photo images have been taken and will be used both for producing mapping products but also to develop improved software and work flow processing tools for the new sensor.
- Mosaic Mapping Launches Affiliate Partners Program
Mosaic
Mapping now offers a unique affiliate/partner
program for those firms looking for a low-risk, cost-effective
entry
point in to the lidar mapping business. The Mosaic Affiliate Partner (MAP) Program is
designed to give customers access to enhanced geospatial data
within shorter production cycles at lower costs. Qualified Partners are
able to enhance their existing service offering with Mosaic's
highly acclaimed lidar services and data products and dedicated
sensor access, significantly reducing the time to market and
the capital investments required to achieve quality results. As
part of the company's related expansion plans, Mosaic has also
opened a new office in Calgary.
- EnerQuest Improves Automated Classification With SILC Technology
EnerQuest Systems has
developed a technology, named SILC (Spectral Imagery LIDAR Composite), for the automatic classification of lidar data using additional spectral information captured simultaneously with the lidar data. Multispectral pixels from a tightly integrated and bore-sighted digital camera are now associated with individual XYZ values automatically in post-processing to allow discrimination between roads, buildings, trees, water and other features. The SILC technique is possible only with an integrated lidar and color, CIR digital camera systems. The precise calibration and alignment of these two subsystems is vital for the software to calculate, display and manipulate spectrally attributed .LAS formatted lidar data. This is a significant improvement over intensity-based classification since most intensity values are only roughly calibrated and results vary during a project and even during a single mission. In addition, classification from the single narrow spectral band is more limited and pavement, vegetation and water may appear as the same intensity. The SILC process allows multispectral pixels to be associated with individual XYZ values to discriminate between lidar points for accurate classification using conventional remote sensing techniques. Grasses and trees are spectrally distinct and vegetation can even be classified by species. Water is readily apparent; soil and bedrock types can be defined and cultural features such as rooftops can be classified based on material. Essentially the laser points are projected through collinearity equations onto their proper position on the frame array taking into consideration the camera model using photogrammetric techniques. A very interesting development.
- ILMF Broadens Scope, Increases Attendance
This
year’s International LIDAR Mapping Forum (ILMF), held January 27-28 2003 in New Orleans, Louisiana, was marked by broader discussions than previous events. Two years ago, dialog centered primarily on technology. This year, speakers also embraced applications and market-based dialog. The event also featured its first-ever exhibit hall and a second day of technical sessions and workshops. There were close to 200 registrants at the two-day meeting, a 50% increase over the previous year. A good overview of the forum is presented in the latest Geospatial Solutions and is available online. [Not sure I really said mapping dams was going to be the killer app for lidar - although I think it is an important application for security purposes for sure - if I had to choose a killer app it would still be urban modeling. mjf] Don't forget to check out the ILMF web site for details about next years forum.
- ILMF Key Note Presentation Available for Download
The key
note presentation from the recent ILMF entitled "Strategic Opportunities: The
Role of Lidar Mapping Technology in National Security and Homeland
Defense" is available for download. The presentation covers the
anticipated major applications for
lidar mapping technology in the areas of homeland defense as well as some of the more significant technology trends expected to develop in the next few years. This is a a ZIPped PowerPoint presentation (52 kB).
- US Domestic Lidar Data Pricing
A recent award by IMAGIS
(Indianapolis Mapping and Geographic Infrastructure System) for lidar
data collection of Marion County (Indiana) gives insight in to current
pricing levels in the domestic US market. The project is in support of
DEM and 2’ contour mapping. The RFP calls for lidar data collection of
approx. 490 sq. miles with approx 1 return per square meter.
The project was awarded to LMSI (Raymond, MS) in conjunction with the aerial photo firm GRW (Indianapolis, IN) . The project
award was $295,250 (US) for the lidar data collection or ~$600/sq. mile. Interestingly, the separate aerial photo contract was reduced by the vendor by ~40% due to the lidar work being authorized. This price is slightly higher than average for this size project but in-line with other more recent awards (see MDA news item below ). There are more details available on the IMAGIS web site and in the minutes of their various
meetings for those who want to
investigate further or read the original RFP. By contrast, there have been
other recent awards in the US for larger projects (> 1,000
sq. miles) that have gone in almost the same total project price
range, dropping the unit costs for lidar data in to the $250
- $300 (US)/sq. mile bracket. Unfortunately, for many projects in the US
it is still hard to determine from the availible public domain
information the exact lidar data product
being purchased, so the amount of automated vs. manual editing included in the price is unknown and this can make it difficult to compare across projects.
- TCRI Makes Acquisition in Lidar Market
Texas Commercial
Resources Inc. (TCRI) announced in June of 2002 that it had signed a letter of intent to purchase Visual Intelligence Systems Inc. (Visual) of Houston, Texas. Visual Intelligence, also known as Visidata, uses its AirRECON III sensor, which
combines a Leica ALS40 lidar with a 36-megapixel digital color camera, to create automatically orthorectified images and digital elevation models. Their latest sensor, the AirRECON V
, has been upgraded to a 67-megapixel digital color camera. The press release also notes that Visual is examining possibilities for international licensing of its technology. The company expects to use strategic partners to capture a greater portion of the offshore market, while it focuses on the US domestic market. They have also been filing several patents related to remote sensing
technology and the aerial photography markets, hiring a PR/Investor Relations firm as well as winning contracts in the commercial market.
- GeoLas Announces Availability of "LiteMapper" Sensor
GeoLas recently announced that in 2003 it will enter
the sensor market with instrument designs based on their own
'LiteMapper' sensors, one design customized for area surveys with fixed-wing aircraft
and one for corridor mapping with helicopters. These
fully integrated lidar systems 'for the rest of us' will be offered for sale with a
significantly lower price tag than the high-end competition. They cover
the low to mid altitude segments (250 - 700 m) and include a
top-of-the-line sensor navigation package (of European origin, so there
are less export restrictions), data registration and have an integrated
digital camera option. The sensors also come with a suite of
software tools covering lidar project management and data processing
called 'LasTools'.
- MDA to Provide Lidar Data to Help with Flooding Problems in Texas
MacDonald,
Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (TSX: MDA) announced
March 13, 2003 that the company's Geographic Information Products group has been awarded a
contract funded by Hidalgo County Drainage District No.1 through S&B Infrastructure, Ltd. of Houston, Texas to produce three-dimensional land information of a 900 square mile area on the U.S.
border with Mexico. Hidalgo County, TX is one of the fastest growing
counties in the United States, but rapid growth has also increased
the amount of impervious surfaces in the region, causing a serious flooding potential.
MDA's work will support an overall drainage design being undertaken by
S&B Infrastructure, Ltd. to produce an effective new drainage system. MDA will create three-dimensional images of the area using lidar to create accurate and detailed
topography information. The S&B Infrastructure, Ltd. contract with MDA is valued at
~$485,000 US. Which if you are keeping track is about $540/sq. mile. Again, actual scope of
work - how much is for lidar data collection and processing and how much is for value-added work - is hard to determine.
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