Question of the Day

Typically, when I make presentations on Mobile LiDAR, I take a brief moment to step into a point cloud to introduce the audience to the unlimited perspectives one can take when visualizing the information.  Taking the 3D data and flattening it into a 2D screen capture does not do the information justice.

In today's presentation, I pulled up an interchange system with 4 levels of interstate highway and ramps with a similar aspect to what you see below - an aerial view.  The question from an attendee was (to paraphrase) "how do you get an aerial view from a system mounted on a suburban?"  My response was to make an analogy to ArcGIS and various feature datasets as these were well versed GIS users.  I have had this question in the past but moved about the room to represent the change in perspective.  



Having spatially sound, 3D information allows for an infinite number of perspectives - includes the position of the observer, target and a field of view.  This ability provides the framework for a number of applications including line of sight analysis, obstructions, glide slopes, transportation/infrastructure design and 4D modeling.