Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Please post any further education or courses that are for laser scanning
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hypsometric
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Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by hypsometric »

Isn't it ridiculous that we don't have a timeline of Lidar (especially terrestrial) equipment?
I would like to produce a poster about the history of terrestrial lidar equipment....
And I need your help...

Step 1:

I would like to collect the following categories of info for each scanner:

Scanner:
name
manufacturer
model
weight
cost
dimensions
photo of scanner
release date
retire date
number of units sold (this is a tricky one but if it's retired what incentive is there to keep this secret)

Scanner platform:
points per second
pulse or phase
laser classification
accuracy ratings based on mid-level capture settings
noise?
usable point distance
file format
local storage media
mechanical function (mirror or ?)
additional sensors (photo, gps, etc)
calibration requirements
bundled registration software
power source life (ac or battery life for battery)
unit start up time

alot of these can be disputed for each unit... so lets dispute and come to some sort of agreement...

also food for thought:

look how weak our info is on Cyrax...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrax_(HDS_system)

Also the attached timeline is roughly the graphic style I will use... but will look very different in order to track all the data points...
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Update: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by hypsometric »

Update:

Jason aptly suggested that I start to design the layout so everyone can see what the end product will look like... so stay tuned for that in a couple of day...

Cyrax 2400... basically the t-lidar scanner:
Today I met with this awesome scanning veteran name Gus from Rick Engineering in San Diego... He used the Cyrax scanner serial number 003... plus he gave me proof...

I invited Gus to join the forum... but in the meantime I will send him a link to any comments or questions you may have about 003.
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Re: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by grahamhunter »

There is a nicely presented timeline on the Riegl website which can be incorporated into your work:

http://www.riegl.com/company/timeline/
http://www.riegl.com/uploads/tx_pxprieg ... 2_view.pdf

I had chance to use one of the first Riegl LMS-Z210 scanners in 1998. It's a great instrument (and it is still in use by one of our customers today). One of the first big projects we did was Shamva Mine in Zimbabwe (during the time when I-SITE were selling re-badged Riegl scanners) and there is a write up here:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/do ... 1&type=pdf

My colleague Kean McCallum spent 3 months aligning 95 scans of caverns and tunnels using the most primitive software to produce a watertight model to calculate the volume. It was an awesome piece of work - and one that would challenge many users even today.
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Re: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by hypsometric »

Graham... very cool...thanks for the great links and the personal experience info...

Riegl seems to have a significant history mining solutions...

Are you at all surprised about how long its taken for laserscanning to mature?

Also... it seems that software hasn't really progressed as fast as other industries...

I feel like the processing power has only really improved the software user experience...

my feeling is that the software remains primitive...

Gus was describing the photogrammetry process that the Cyrax scanner replaced... photogrammetry as a software technology has jumped leaps and bounds... now this is clearly because photography is a far more accessible (cheaper) technology.

But, I suspect that our lack of software technology progress has more to do with lack of out of the box thinking...

Here is a reductivist view of our industry:

Leica... precision
Z+F... balance
Surphaser... accuracy
Reigl... distance
Faro... cheaper
Trimble... me too!
Topcon... me three!

Lets take auto-registration as an example... it seems like the industry didn't even wake up to that till 3 years ago when Faro started marketing outside the surveying/control industry...
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Re: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by Oatfedgoat »

hypsometric wrote:

Also... it seems that software hasn't really progressed as fast as other industries...

I feel like the processing power has only really improved the software user experience...

my feeling is that the software remains primitive...

Gus was describing the photogrammetry process that the Cyrax scanner replaced... photogrammetry as a software technology has jumped leaps and bounds... now this is clearly because photography is a far more accessible (cheaper) technology.

But, I suspect that our lack of software technology progress has more to do with lack of out of the box thinking...

Here is a reductivist view of our industry:

Leica... precision
Z+F... balance
Surphaser... accuracy
Reigl... distance
Faro... cheaper
Trimble... me too!
Topcon... me three!

Lets take auto-registration as an example... it seems like the industry didn't even wake up to that till 3 years ago when Faro started marketing outside the surveying/control industry...
Great post. Agree with pretty much all of it.
The trouble is, developing new scanners draws attention, devloping new software will mainly only be of interest to existing customers and logically generate less revenue.

Improved engines and software from companies outside of the laser scanning manufacturer sector are the ones making breakthroughs, not our vendors that we have developed long standing relationships with.

There's far too much of a "It's the way it's always been" acceptance in not demanding improved software in the industry unfortunately.
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Re: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by Matt Young »

I did a lot of work with the Cyrax 2500 back in 2003. It was an improvement on the 2400 as the battery could be carried with one hand... just about. You scanned in a 40x40 window and if you wanted to scan the top of a building you had to do it in two or three parts! We used a Computer with 1Gb of memory, which was fast at the time.

I still have access to all the data we acquired with the 2500.
measured1.jpg
Then onto the 3000, Scanstation 1, scanstation 2, and finally the C10
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Re: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by Oatfedgoat »

Did you guys not ever have a 4500 Matt?
I remember the first time I saw one spin up, thought it was going to take off!
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Re: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by Matt Young »

I did a few jobs with a rental 4500 and it was a good scanner. It did suffer with artifacts in the data, but might of been just that unit.

When I first saw the P20 I thought that was going to take off!
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Re: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by hypsometric »

This is gold guys... keep it coming... so awesome...

Matt Y ... at what point did it become Leica... around the time of the 3000? was the scanstation 1 rebadge job? also was the 2400 always black and 2500 grey? Also would love to see the 2500 data... was the registration software an early version of Cyclone?

Matt M ... thanks for the post support, I want to make a post soon for companies to watch in the future tech... and what heck is the 4500?

Also, I would like to throughout here that Leica's mergeTEC which developed out of the Disto 3d "experiment" is probably the most promising step away from the brut-force scanning method we use today... thoughts?
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Re: Terrestrial Lidar History Poster Idea/Info Needed

Post by Matt Young »

The 3000 was a different shape and totally Leica. The Scanstation 1 included a level compensator I think, but might of been the SS2. I think the colours of the 2400 and 2500 were black and grey respectively. I will try and find a sample I can upload when I get a chance. I started using Cyclone 3.1 (now 8.03, soon to be 8.4)

The 4500 was a Z+F rebadge for Leica around the same time as the 2500 and Leica 3000. It went on to be the HDS600 and HDS7000
http://hds.leica-geosystems.com/en/5572.htm
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