OpenTopography Blog

Information and discussion related to high-resolution LiDAR topography for the Earth sciences

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Category: Video

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The Balloon and the Lidar

Posted on Wed, March 28, 2012 by Chris Crosby in Meetings • TLS • Video

At last month’s UNAVCO Science Workshop they introduced an evening of Ignite talks presented by members of the UNAVCO community.  The event was well attended and quite fun.  The full set of videos are now available here: http://igniteshow.com/events/2012-unavco-science-workshop

Of particular interest to the lidar community is Ben Brook’s (UH Manoa) talk, ”The Balloon and Lidar” about his work with Craig Glennie (University of Houston) to build a balloon (or backpack) based lidar system. The system has the potential to bridge the gap between terrestrial and airborne lidar, providing detailed scans of features such as fault scarps and landslides from the air.

Video embedded below (apologies for the autostart - seems to be the default for Ignite videos):

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Video Highlights Applications of Oregon Lidar Data

Posted on Mon, February 14, 2011 by Chris Crosby in Education • Video

This well done ~10 minute video from Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Field Guide does an excellent job of highlighting the various earth science applications for the lidar data being collected by the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries’ (DOGAMI) Lidar Consortium.  The video features DOGAMI’s Ian Madin talking about applications for bare earth lidar data, including identifying and mapping Missoula Flood deposits, landslides, and volcanic cones.  The video also offers a nice overview of lidar data collection, with footage from inside Watershed Science’s aircraft.  More information about the video is available via this OPB Field Journal blog post.

Oregon is currently a leader with their large scale, high-resolution, lidar data collections.  These datasets exceed 8 shots/m² and make the subtle identification and mapping applications discussed in the video possible.  OpenTopography recently received a hard drive containing several Oregon Lidar Consortium datasets, and we are in the process of discussing a partnership to deliver these data to users.  Stay tuned for more.

via: lidarnews.com

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Media coverage of El Mayor-Cucupah earthquake rupture LiDAR dataset

Posted on Thu, September 16, 2010 by Chris Crosby in 2010 Baja EQ • Data • News • Video

Palm Springs CBS TV affiliate KPSP has a nice report and video from the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) annual meeting this past week highlighting the recently collected LiDAR data along the surface rupture of the April 4th, 2010 El Mayor-Cucupah earthquake in northern Baja California.  Results from analysis of preliminary data products were presented at the SCEC meeting.  The video features Mike Oskin of UC Davis, and OpenTopography Co-PI, Ramon Arrowsmith from ASU.  Read the article and view the video here: Scientists: It’s Now Easier to Predict ‘The Big One’

These data were gathered by the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping with funding from the National Science Foundation and SCEC.  Processing of these data is currently underway, and all data products will ultimately be freely available from OpenTopography.

Scarp from 2010 El Mayor-Cucupah earthquake:

Via Ramon Arrowsmith

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LiDAR - Illuminating Earthquake Hazards Video Premiered at SCEC Annual Meeting

Posted on Sun, September 12, 2010 by Chris Crosby in Education • Video

As part of a Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) and OpenTopography collaboration, Sarah Robinson (ASU M.S. student) and Andrew Whitesides (USC undergraduate) - supported by SCEC’s ACCESS program (Advancement of Cyberinfrastructure Careers through Earthquake System Science) and in collaboration with numerous SCEC scientists and the OpenTopography team - have produced a new educational video entitled LiDAR - Illuminating Earthquake Hazards.  The video provides an introduction to both LiDAR technology as well as the earthquake science that is being done with the data.

The video premiered at this week’s SCEC Annual Meeting in Palm Springs and has been posted to OpenTopography’s YouTube channel

Congratulations to Sarah and Andrew, a lot of hard work went into making this video a reality, and thanks to everyone who supported the effort.

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OpenTopography Overview Video

Posted on Mon, June 21, 2010 by Chris Crosby in OpenTopography Updates • Video

The OpenTopography ASU Capstone team - a group of senior undergraduate (who have now graduated - congrats!) School of Computing and Informatics students at Arizona State supervised by OpenTopography Co-I Ramon Arrowsmith - have released another nice video about OpenTopography.  This video provides an introduction to the OpenTopography Facility:

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Boise Center Aerospace Laboratory LiDAR Outreach Videos

Posted on Mon, June 07, 2010 by Chris Crosby in Education • Google Earth • Video

Nancy Glenn from the Idaho State University Department of Geosciences Boise Center Aerospace Laboratory (BCAL) sent along a link to a collection of outreach videos they have been developing that provide 3D visualizations using LiDAR and other digital data.  For example, the following video provides a narrated tour of the Snake River in eastern Idaho:

The BCAL videos page also features a 3D tour of the Borah Peak Earthquake rupture and an introduction to LiDAR technology.  These resources, produced with National Science Foundation Idaho EPSCoR Program funding, are great resources for education and outreach.

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LiDAR 101 Video

Posted on Thu, April 01, 2010 by Chris Crosby in Education • Resources • Video

I just stumbled upon this LiDAR 101 video, produced by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at University of Georgia, while Googling for something else.  In ~13 minutes, it does a nice job of summarizing LiDAR technology, data products, the costs associated with acquiring data, and various applications.  It is worth a watch if you are looking for a quick crash-course in LiDAR or need a video to show in the classroom:

Are there other good introduction to LiDAR videos out there?  Leave a comment if you are aware of others.

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Filtering vegetation from Terrestrial Laser Scanning data using the Point2Grid tool

Posted on Fri, February 26, 2010 by Chris Crosby in Points2Grid • Software • TLS • Video

Max Wilkinson, a PhD student in the Dept. of Earth Sciences at Durham University in the UK, recently sent us a link to a video of a seminar he gave on methods of vegetation filtration from Terrestiral Laser Scanning (TLS) data using the Points2Grid tool developed by the OpenTopography team (originally developed with GEON funding).  Points2Grid is a Windows application that implements the exact same DEM generation algorithm that is used in the OpenTopography point cloud processing system.  It was developed to allow users to get the same DEM generation capabilities as are available in OpenTopography for non-hosted data. 

Dealing with vegetation in TLS scanner data can be a significant problem, and Max shows in the video how he is able to use the MIN surface feature in P2G to remove much of the vegetation from the scan.  Points2Grid is not technically designed to filter vegetation, but the minimum surface function can act as a low budget filter.  P2G is also handy for reducing the complexity of the point cloud data down to something more manageable for analysis.  In this case, Max has much higher shot densities than he needs to construct a surface from the data, and P2G helps to reduce the amount of data he is working with:

From the TLS perspective, I’m finding P2G is tremendously useful for distilling large pointsets down to a size whereby the computing time required to test various interpolation methods becomes bearable! I had previously spent many hours waiting to see the output of an interpolation based on millions of points, only to find the parameters I used were not quite right. With the reduced computing time I’m now able to run more interpolations in various programs with a range of different parameters to see the results. I’m now using arcGIS for interpolations of TLS data, rather than just goCAD. For example, I’ve just finished a flow routing analysis of footwall drainage in arcGIS. A big thank you to the team for making P2G available!

Screen capture of the video:

You can download the video from Max’s page here: Vegetation Removal.avi (124 MB download). 

I had difficulties getting the file to play in Quicktime on a Mac, but the video played perfectly in open source (free) VLC player.  You may also need this ffdshow codec provided by Max.

The GEON Points2Grid tool can be downloaded via the lidar.asu.edu site.  I recommend reading the P2G Instructions / Help doc and also looking at the this page on how the search radius parameter in P2G works.

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