LIDAR

what this basically is, is a satellite (or perhaps an airplane? i dunno) which scans an area with a laser to get very, very accurate elevation readings.

the netherlands, LIDAR imaged

but wait. here's where it gets really fucking cool.

it blows my mind that a satellite can produce this stuff by bouncing a laser off buildings and terrain and crap. interactive viewer. unfortunately the juicy hi-res stuff is behind a paywall.

wiki article.

technical data:

  Quote

Height precision: 5 cm systematic and 5 cm standard deviation stochastic

Planimetric precision: objects 2 × 2 m must be mapped within 50 cm

Vegetation, objects, buildings etc. filtered out to obtain real terrain height

Resulting point density: 8-20 pt/m²

This is pretty damn cool.

I can see that sometime in the future this technology would be utilized for GPS style devices, where you could see your surroundings for however many square miles in 3D like that, eventually maybe even updated in real time?

Lidar is crazy

Great... i have an unreleased ambient track called LIDAR... looks like I have to rename it.

just add a drum loop with buffer override to it, then it'll be IDM enough.

We use LIDAR here for our projects with a team of chartered surveyors. They scan at night, pretty good stuff, then as NURBS the point cloud gets sent back to AutoCAD and we have 100% accurate terrain for our Landscape Architecture projects.

  On 7/11/2012 at 11:45 PM, asymmetrical head said:

Great... i have an unreleased ambient track called LIDAR... looks like I have to rename it.

uhh, why ?

  On 7/11/2012 at 11:45 PM, asymmetrical head said:

Great... i have an unreleased ambient track called LIDAR... looks like I have to rename it.

you like Russell Brand? (the avatar)

  On 7/12/2012 at 1:33 AM, Philip Glass said:

We use LIDAR here for our projects with a team of chartered surveyors. They scan at night, pretty good stuff, then as NURBS the point cloud gets sent back to AutoCAD and we have 100% accurate terrain for our Landscape Architecture projects.

i know some of these words.

I'd kill to see a LIDAR survey of the Papoose test range so I can finally know whether the hidden hangers of S-4 actually exist.

  On 7/12/2012 at 2:37 AM, kaini said:

  On 7/12/2012 at 1:33 AM, Philip Glass said:

We use LIDAR here for our projects with a team of chartered surveyors. They scan at night, pretty good stuff, then as NURBS the point cloud gets sent back to AutoCAD and we have 100% accurate terrain for our Landscape Architecture projects.

 

i know some of these words.

I'm a n00b regarding NURBS

The more I read about it the more neato things I find out about it. Apparently it's used in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTFjVm9sTQ

that is actually the very first thing i thought of when i saw the images. nice to see my suspicions confirmed.

i watched a show about area 51 in the 50's i think and they were talking about how they built stealth jets that would take photographs of russian bases from the sky and used it for research.... same thing, updated

I have a friend who is in upper management for a company that does this and sells the results to some very high-end, i'd-tell-you-but-i'd-have-to-kill-you groups. he says the tech is redonkulous.

He's coming back from Chile soon, I'll ask him if he can reveal any secrets regarding Area 51.

  On 7/12/2012 at 2:31 AM, Pennywise said:

  On 7/11/2012 at 11:45 PM, asymmetrical head said:

Great... i have an unreleased ambient track called LIDAR... looks like I have to rename it.

 

you like Russell Brand? (the avatar)

the av is an old school wrestler from the 70s/80s named Bruiser Brody.

  On 7/12/2012 at 3:49 AM, yek said:

i watched a show about area 51 in the 50's i think and they were talking about how they built stealth jets that would take photographs of russian bases from the sky and used it for research.... same thing, updated

If you're speaking of a recent National Geographic documentary about the base I watched that as well. Really good overview and even a few declassified tidbits that were new to me. Since I'm obsessed with anything related to Area 51 that's saying a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JByUxV1X_pg

It was the primary U-2 (base and runway was built for that specifically), the A-12 (the prototype/first incarnation of the SR-71) and F-117 test base. The stealth copters in the Bin Laden raid and the drone that crashed in Iran recently are more recent examples of aircraft likely tested there. Since the late 60s until today, god knows what else - hypersonic planes, drones, scrapped prototypes, and of course all the captured UFO theories. The US also tested (and likely continues to test) captured Soviet/CIS planes there as well, along with it's sister base at Tonopah.

  On 7/12/2012 at 4:12 AM, chenGOD said:

I have a friend who is in upper management for a company that does this and sells the results to some very high-end, i'd-tell-you-but-i'd-have-to-kill-you groups. he says the tech is redonkulous.

He's coming back from Chile soon, I'll ask him if he can reveal any secrets regarding Area 51.

I believe it. And Area 51, i.e. the Groom Lake airbase, is just one of a slew of facilities in the Nellis test range, which is one of many large restricted military/government facilities. My friend's dad worked out of there for a contract, normally working at Holloman AFB/White Sands missile range. I messed with him mentally and he dipped into alcoholism for a couple of years. He's recovered from that is basically back to normal, real nice guy, but he's still carrying a lot of secrets, even as a compartmentalized engineer.

My brother-in-law was on a plane that landed at Tonopah test base for an unscheduled fueling. Even though he and all crew and passengers were USAF or government employees they were surrounded with multiple security vehicles and armed guards, and had to sit in the plane the entire time. He just shook his head and said "something's going on there for sure."

all I can think about is video games.

pretty impressive

I think it must be from airplanes they get these images from. Wouldn't a laser get all refracted in the atmosphere if it was from a satellite?

  On 7/12/2012 at 8:46 AM, Gocab said:

all I can think about is video games.

iRacing scans all their licensed racing tracks and cars with LIDAR. You can do it fast with a moving car (accuracy ~0.1m), but they stop each 100m and it gives them a 0.01m accuracy.

It's very impressive and also makes every other racing game obsolete and inaccurate. Once you run 100% true tracks, you can't go to fake ones anymore, especially since most company still use Google Maps, TV broadcasts and photos to create their tracks LOL

i'm pretty sure all the new self driving vehicles are using LIDAR

Revenge of the NURBS

  On 7/12/2012 at 7:17 AM, joshuatx said:

  On 7/12/2012 at 3:49 AM, yek said:

i watched a show about area 51 in the 50's i think and they were talking about how they built stealth jets that would take photographs of russian bases from the sky and used it for research.... same thing, updated

 

If you're speaking of a recent National Geographic documentary about the base I watched that as well.

 

yeah, that was the show.

iinsane, no where to hide.

  On 7/12/2012 at 11:20 AM, azatoth said:

I think it must be from airplanes they get these images from. Wouldn't a laser get all refracted in the atmosphere if it was from a satellite?

I think they use both airplanes and satellites.