The world has already changed. New technologies are entering, some others are already in use for a long time, and others exist but without knowing a lot about them. What if everyone on the planet was trying to know how does the tv work or how you can connect with others by phone? And I don’t speak here about the theoretical knowledge, or that there is some kind of thing called “satellite”. Nowadays there are more advanced technologies than you can imagine and one of them is the LiDAR scanner. And if you can’t really imagine, as I said, read this article to be closer than anyone else. Because I assure you, this is not just another function.
Probably you have heard the last time a lot about the new iPhone 12 Pro Camera upgrade, but have you heard about that mysterious dot on the back? If you belong to that group of those who are huge fans of Apple, I assume you know what I am writing about. Lidar scanner is one of those things. What is it? LiDAR (or ‘Light Detection and Ranging’) is a method for measuring distances by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflection with a sensor.
This is big news for augmented reality (AR) and the movie industry too. Imagine in the past, people had to use a green screen to create unrealistic content.
Now, it’s impossible to make a difference between 3D and reality. A company like Quixel which is a 3D scans library, allows you to insert real items into the digital world. Even the scenography of Mandalorian is made with this technology. Put Disney, unreal engine, and Quixel in a bag, shake it and watch this video.
The technology is also used in control and navigation for some autonomous cars like obstacle detection and avoidance to navigate safely through environments. Some even say that LiDAR Scanning is like human eyes for a car. Another interesting usage – it is hard not to mention about a company like Epic Games, where they use the unreal engine software in video games editor to make a map design.
Well, this is let’s say just the beginning, and we already find so many usages of this technology! It’s very useful to know how does it work, and in practice, the usage of this is just incredible!
Sources:
https://quixel.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=quixel%20exact%20responsive%20search&utm_campaign=search%20brand
https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/what-is-lidar-technology-and-how-does-it-work/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar
Lovely blog:) Very informative! I’m a huge fan of the unreal engine and actually Sony announced that some of their major first-party games for the PS5 will be running on the unreal engine with LiDAR enabled, offering a much more interactive and realistic in-game experience. They really do a good job to make you feel like you’re actually living in the game character’s world.
Ohh! Thanks a lot for sharing, didn’t know about it! I think it will be more and more popular with time, there are so many things you can do with LiDAR technology!
LiDAR is great! I can imagine interior decoration or architecture using LiDAR. I will completely change workflow of many people and open new chapter of gaming industry. Especially now with LiDAR in new iPhones the trend of implementing it in phones will accelerate significantly.
Yeah, LiDAR is great! But its more awesome if you know what you can do with it 🙂