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

[David Doria]

On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 12:21 PM, David Doria
<daviddoria+vtk at gmail.com<daviddoria%2Bvtk 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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