Dick Henderson Animation

I uploaded an animation of our Dick Henderson Bridge collection to YouTube some time ago.  The short video shows the combination of the point cloud information with derived planimetrics of the underneath structure and piers.



I compiled the animation using Pointools with a little transition editing afterwards.  I've been using the software for some time now to generate these animations and to create the screen captures shown in this blog.

Cheers!
Stephen

Mississippi River Levee

Given my recent travels and work assignments, it's been hard to find time to update Baker's Mobile LiDAR blog with new content.  Aaron stepped in a couple weeks ago for the Revisiting Yazoo post.  And now that products are being finalized for some recent collections, new postings will be forthcoming.  In the meantime, one of our technicians compiled a brief fly through of the Mississippi River Levee collection.

The below animation shows an intensity and colorized point cloud of a two mile stretch of levee along the east bank of the Mississippi River outside Baton Rouge.  Areas not colorized do not appear in the photographs taken by the on-board cameras.

Some of the challenges we face in colorizing point clouds include:

• Changes in sun angle during collection
• Orientation of the vehicle with respect to the sun (vehicle shadow in images)
• Saturation of the upper portions of tree canopies
• Vehicles and other extraneous objects in the images

Again, project planning comes into the "picture."  If a colorized point cloud of a roadway corridor is required, it would prove more wise to perform two shorter collections during off-peak hours (perhaps a Saturday and Sunday morning) to improve the final product.

Clouds - Not the Fluffy Kind

Following up on the "Question of the Day" post, I wanted to share a video that was produced of the I-110 collection in Baton Rouge.  The video was part of a presentation given earlier this week at the National States Geographic Information Council Mid-Year Conference in Annapolis, Maryland.

The collection consisted of 27 different approaches to the interchange and took about one and a half hours.  The dense collection of points is commonly referred to as a Point Cloud - Wikipedia has a limited definition.  The cloud shown in the video is composed of 491 million points.

Target of Opportunity

Great Bridge Bridge

Virginia

Some time ago, we were in Chesapeake, Virginia performing a collection and demonstration.  While driving, we saw a target of opportunity - the Great Bridge Bridge - and collected roughly 10 seconds of data.  There was no purpose for the collection, but after processing I thought it would make an excellent example for showing point cloud samples - given the joint in the split drawbridge.

Above, I've render the point cloud two different ways.  On the right hand side are point colorized by height/elevation only. There is nothing to differentiate one point from another as far as composition.  On the left hand side I've included the intensity of the return in the colorization.  From the intensity, you can begin to differentiate the striping, road and materials. Just as in traditional surveying where measured points will have an associated description, we can begin to see how intensity is used in point classification - more to come on that subject.

In addition, I've compiled a brief video of the bridge. Feel free to post comments and suggestions.

Pipe Ladder Animation

A few weeks ago, our Mobile LiDAR crew collected several roads around a heavy industrial area - including refineries and a railyard.  Adjacent to and above our survey area was a complex labyrinth of pipes, fencing, railroad tracks and utilities. Making sense of all of the data could be quite daunting if looking at the entire collection. Utilizing animation, I've been able to illustrate how clipping the information can yield a new perspective. The video is a simple animation compiled showing a pipe ladder that we drove under. All of the information depicted was captured in seconds. The photograph shows the pipe ladder as taken with one of the onboard cameras.

Note:  If you're not able to view YouTube videos and would like a copy,  leave a comment with your contact information.  Comments are moderated and your information will not be published to the board.