This blog post was originally published by Outsight. It is reprinted here with the permission of Outsight.
If LiDAR is such an attractive technology, why aren’t we seeing it used more often?
From smart cities to autonomous machines, companies in both the public and private sectors are increasingly looking to leverage the benefits of 3D perception. Five mega-trends are propelling the technology.
Application developers are turning to 3D LiDAR either to replace legacy sensing technology or to create solutions that were once unachievable.
Unlike existing 2D-based perception technologies, LiDAR produces highly detailed, accurate spatial measurements and works in a range of environments and contexts such as during the night and under direct sunlight.
LiDAR also offers an important nontechnical advantage when deployed at scale: no personally identifiable information is ever captured.
Companies are always looking for ways to improve their operations and differentiate themselves, so what’s holding LiDAR back?
Contrary to what the majority of observers who are primarily focused on the automotive industry think, it’s not cost or performance that’s inhibiting a broader adoption of LIDAR.
Instead, it’s the complexity associated with this new technology.
A 3D LiDAR Pre Processor turns RAW data into actionable information
Running in real-time, LiDAR pre-processing software takes raw 3D data as an input and instantly converts it to accessible, actionable insight.
The overall objective of a LiDAR pre-processor is to make it super-easy to use and integrate this awesome technology.
Let’s see what does it mean with an example: starting using SLAM (Simultaneous Localization & Mapping) for mobile robotics & Smart Vehicles applications in a matter of seconds, without needing to install any framework or software in your computer:
In more detail, the four main functions that a Pre Processor performs simultaneously are:
- Abstracting the Hardware complexity (input): this means that the application developer won’t have to worry about creating a unique driver for each Sensor, as well as adding features that allow data from different manufacturers to be fused (combined).
- Standardising and simplifying the output: LiDAR proprietary data formats and protocols made sense when this emerging technology first appeared since it shortened the time to market of new hardware products delivering raw data. The burden of decoding each specific format was on the user.
For a LiDAR pre-processor to accomplish its purpose, it must provide an open data representation system.
The Outsight’s Augmented LiDAR Box© delivers its output using OSEF, a serialization binary format, based on TLV-encoding.
- Reducing the required bandwidth and processing requirements of the Application layers: ingesting at the application level the whole 3D RAW LiDAR point-cloud is… pointless. The pre processor must provide only relevant data for the application at hand, dramatically decreasing its volume.
- Make the data processing heavy lifting, that is, perform the key features that are commonly required in most applications: SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), Object tracking and classification, Segmentation, Free space detection, Volume measurement…
At Outsight we’ve created the first LiDAR Pre Processor, that performs a comprehensive set of features in real-time:
Conclusion
As an application developer, you can stay up to date on LIDAR hardware technology and get the most value out of it with a real-time 3D pre-processor, allowing you to focus on the application’s added value, whether it’s a Mobile Robot, a Smart Infrastructure project, or an Industrial solution:
In order to become usable by everyone, LiDAR technology must evolve from its current status of a promising hardware component used by expert early adopters to a solution enabler that can be used by mainstream professional users.
That requires evolving from a hardware- centric approach, delivering raw data and surrounded by complexity, to software-enabled actionable insight.
A new category of products does exactly that: real-time 3D pre-processing software is here to stay and to empower a new generation of application developers to leverage the unique value of LiDAR data.
Want to know more? Take a look at our latest Whitepaper
