Tools for Interpreting LiDAR Point Clouds
Abstract
With the help of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) remote sensing technology, scientists are able to collect 3-d point cloud data representing the earth’s features in order to understand landscape processes. Point clouds can be defined as datasets of x, y, z coordinates that can be used to visualize a landscape. The Boise Center Aerospace Lab (BCAL) at Boise State University developed computer tools to interpret point cloud data that are written in a programming language called IDL and are run as an add-on to ENVI, a remote sensing software package. There is a need to make these tools more accessible to the scientific community. For this reason, I am working on multiple projects to achieve this goal. The first project involves running, testing and debugging, or editing, a beta version of the BCAL tools that is written in the language C++ by research scientist Josh Johnston. The second project involves documenting the BCAL tools in preparation to collaborate with OpenTopography (opentopography.org), an online portal for topographic data and tools. The goal of these projects is to make the BCAL LiDAR tools widely available and more user-friendly.
Tools for Interpreting LiDAR Point Clouds
With the help of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) remote sensing technology, scientists are able to collect 3-d point cloud data representing the earth’s features in order to understand landscape processes. Point clouds can be defined as datasets of x, y, z coordinates that can be used to visualize a landscape. The Boise Center Aerospace Lab (BCAL) at Boise State University developed computer tools to interpret point cloud data that are written in a programming language called IDL and are run as an add-on to ENVI, a remote sensing software package. There is a need to make these tools more accessible to the scientific community. For this reason, I am working on multiple projects to achieve this goal. The first project involves running, testing and debugging, or editing, a beta version of the BCAL tools that is written in the language C++ by research scientist Josh Johnston. The second project involves documenting the BCAL tools in preparation to collaborate with OpenTopography (opentopography.org), an online portal for topographic data and tools. The goal of these projects is to make the BCAL LiDAR tools widely available and more user-friendly.