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Brainstorm thread: What are some novel ideas outside of self-driving that the Waymo Lidar Sensor could be used for? And what could be done if it goes below $1,0
by ElijahLynn 8y ago
Brainstorm thread: What are some novel ideas outside of self-driving that the Waymo Lidar Sensor could be used for? And what could be done if it goes below $1,000 (e.g. video games)?
- lnsru 8y agoYou already have 2 generations of MS Kinect. It can already stream RGB-D images, lidar provides no color information. There is no killer application for cheap lidar, there are many cheap devices covering <10 meter distance range with great resolution and their adoption is still extremely low.
- fudgy73 8y ago*technically 3: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/kinect-dk/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/kinect-dk/
- msadowski 8y agoThey say they can record multiple returns per single pulse. This can really useful for forest mapping (e.g. on a drone). For video games maybe but I'd always try to avoid looking at those, even if LiDARs are eye safe it's not fun staring at them.
- ElijahLynn 8y agoWow, detailed forest mapping! What are some things that would be doable with detailed forrest maps?
- CobrastanJorji 8y agoPerhaps mapping tree growth in response to some environmental changes, or detecting illegal logging, or measuring the impact of wildfires, or, maybe if it does a good job of detecting animals, mapping the migrations/populations of endangered, larger mammals? Alternately, a cheap way to produce amazingly accurate video game maps of your neighborhood.
- ElijahLynn 8y agoGreat stuff here, thanks for those ideas and insight!
- jcims 8y agoYou can also mix in signal from multispectral cameras to get a sense of the health of the flora.
- jefft255 8y agoTree structural models: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/5/2/491 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/5/2/491 Forest inventory: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924271616000204 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092427161... And much more :) Source: I am doing my masters in lidar for forestry and robotics. Feel free to ask me any questions.
- salty_biscuits 8y agoCO2 credits
- Animats 8y agoRecording multiple returns has been common in aerial mappers for years. It's called "first and last" in the industry.[1] [1] https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/142443/what-are-lidar-returns https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/142443/what-are-lida...
- dzhiurgis 8y agoAutomated solar calculator. Point to a roof, get a 3D model and use some model to estimate how much of roof you can cover with panels. Guesstimate the build cost + total solar input per year. Get instant payback number. Use LIDAR to establish some sort of canonical clothes size format? Not just S, M, L, XL that only works for your region. Maybe you don't even need LIDAR, but I'd love personalised clothing. If it's cheaper than thermal cameras - perhaps some use for lifeguards, especially in night?
- flyinglizard 8y agoAll of these use cases could be served - perhaps even better so - with standard cameras and 3D algorithms (e.g. ARKit and the likes). You could prototype the solar calculator yourself with any modern mobile device in a trivial amount of time.
- cr0sh 8y agoYour first one could probably be done with photogrammetry (plus software), and the second could be done with a 3D scanner. For the third, the beam spread probably wouldn't pick out a person at that distance away from shore.
- esc861 8y agoGoogle has already built a great solar calculator using satellite imagery, at https://www.google.com/get/sunroof https://www.google.com/get/sunroof
- puzzle 8y agoTechnically, it's not satellite, but aerial imagery from multiple angles. Geometry is reconstructed with pose estimation and SfM (the open source Ceres solver originated from this and other work).
- fuckyah 8y agoScan anything like size of ur...
- spankalee 8y agoTraffic signals. We shouldn't have to wait at a red light if there aren't cars coming the other way. Much cheaper cameras may be fine for that though...