[Paraview] Adding a synthetic LiDAR scanner to VTK/Paraview

[pat marion]

Hi David,

Did you write this code as a VTK filter?  If not, could it be written
as a VTK filter?  Once you have that, you could add the filter to
paraview as a plugin.  Written as a plugin that conforms to
vtk/paraview style, the code will be very accessible to the paraview
community and you'll get a lot more feedback I'd bet.

Pat

On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 2:48 PM, David Doria<daviddoria+vtk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 12:21 PM, David Doria <daviddoria+vtk at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> I have written a synthetic LiDAR scanner in c++ using VTK and VXL. That
>> is, rather than setting up a collection of objects in real life and actually
>> sending lasers into the scene, one can simply create a scene out of 3d
>> models and "scan" it by casting rays at the models. This seems like
>> something that could be a huge help to any researchers that work with 3D
>> model/surface/point data and LiDAR data. I'm sure many researchers have
>> their own implementations - after all it is a very straightforward process
>> (simply a bunch of ray triangle intersections - which I have sped up using
>> VTK's octree) but I think it would be very useful to someone starting out in
>> the field and to attempt to unify some datasets. I've used it to produce
>> data sets for which a ground truth is known in order to ensure algorithms
>> are behaving properly before moving to "real" LiDAR scans. Also, noise can
>> be added to the points to attempt to simulate a real LiDAR scan for
>> researchers who do not have access to the very expensive equipment required
>> to obtain real scans.
>>
>> The inputs are:
>>
>> Scanner position (3D coordinate)
>> Min/Max phi angle (how far "up and down" the scanner should scan)
>> Min/Max theta angle (how far "left and right" the scanner should scan)
>> Scanner "forward" (the phi=0, theta=0 direction)
>> Angular sample spacing or number of points to acquire in the theta and phi
>> directions (so the "grid" is a total of (num_theta x num_phi) points)
>>
>> The outputs are:
>> A .ptx file that maintains implicitly the structure of the scan (points
>> are ordered as they were taken in "strips"). This is the output given by a
>> real Leica scanner.
>> A .vtp file that is simply an unorganized point cloud of the scan returns.
>>
>> It seems like this could be a neat little thing to add to paraview - just
>> a couple of text boxes and sliders to set the parameters, load the scene you
>> want to scan using existing paraview I/O, visualize the scan frustrum using
>> paraview line sources, and then click "Scan!" to create your ptx and/or vtp.
>>
>> Can I get some feedback on if this is an acceptable extension to
>> vtk/paraview capabilities?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> David
>
> I didn't get any responses from this - would anyone mind responding
> (negative responses are just as helpful as positive ones :) ) so I can put
> this to rest or move forward, which ever the community vote turns out :).
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
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