Open Source Lidar: The lidar and 3D industry is still lacking some of the fundamental underlying frameworks for lidar that we have become used to in the raster and vector worlds. The libLAS (www.liblas.org) project, for which Michael is a key contributor, aims to provide an open source (BSD-licensed) library for some of the core point cloud functions needed for application-level software. Much like GDAL (www.gdal.org) is the de facto framework for gridded, 2D raster geospatial data, libLAS (and its successor, libPC) aim to becoming the de facto framework for ungridded, n-dimensional geospatial point cloud data. Indeed, some of the same talent that work on GDAL are also working on libLAS/libPC, and some notable industry applications have already adopted libLAS for their products. This work is in collaboration with Hobu, Inc. (www.hobu.net), with funding provided by the US Army Corps of Engineers and NGA InnoVision.
Technology Trends in 3D Modeling and High-Performance Processing: Flaxen Geo is currently working as a consultant and subject-matter expert for a multimillion dollar US government research project. We are specifically tasked with researching the state of art – and the 3-5 year trends – for a number of geospatial technologies, including: advances in lidar hardware and software; representation of very large-scale 3D models; object detection and feature extraction from multisensor data collections; and the applicability of GPGPU processing to geospatial algorithms.
Lidar, Point Cloud, and 3D Technology and Data Processing: Flaxen Geo is currently providing advice for some startups concerned with large-scale data collection and mapping efforts in the 3D world. Our work is focused on researching technology trends, identifying new products, and providing input on open source solutions.
Lidar News column: Michael P. Gerlek recently joined Lidar News as a Contributing Author. He will be writing a monthly column on open source topics in the lidar and point cloud worlds, covering everything from open source software packages to open standards to open data.
Open Source and the C#/.NET world: The open source geospatial ecosystem is predominantly a C/C++ world, with solutions based on Java, Python, and JavaScript following on behind. The C#/.NET world is not currently well-represented, however — with the notable exception of the MapWindow/DotSpatial project, C# work is largely relegated to the status of SWIG bindings for C/C++ projects. The C# language and the .NET platform offers scalability and integration from the backend to the UI, and especially with since advent of the Mono platform offering a production-ready alternative to the Microsoft stack, the time has come for more geospatial products to take advantage of these features.