8 thoughts on “A Low-Cost LIDAR”

1. What about the $70 depth camera that’s coming out: http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/06/new-leap-motion-controller-video.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fadvancednano+%28nextbigfuture%29

2. Years ago I thought about a cruder device for cave mapping where you’d open a camera’s shutter and fire a rapidly spinning laser down a dark passage, with the laser pointing perpendicular to the axis of rotation so it traces the walls. Since the laser (and its battery) is spinning, gyroscopic forces will keep the rotation axis exactly constant. If the laser was spinning very, very rapidly and pulsed on for one complete rotation every linear meter of travel, on the film it would produce an accurate contour map of the walls.

   The downside was that the projectile probably wouldn’t survive eventual impact with the cave and would rattle down under a bunch of rocks.

   Perhaps nowdays one of the cheap electric toy helicopters could carry a similar device.

   1. The new Parrot is out, here is a review in PopSci.

      20 minutes flight time with more sensors, 100+ foot altitude, and 720p video. And an open API. Pretty cool. I would think you could have gotten some pretty impressive footage at the Waldo Canyon fire.

3. My confidence in this project isn’t very high as he couldn’t even make a video with decent audio quality. In fact, after a second viewing, the video quality isn’t so hot either.

4. You can buy one of these at Home depot…

   1. http://www.homedepot.com/buy/tools-hardware/hand-tools/strait-line/sonic-laser-tape-50-ft-114503.html

   2. Here’s a link to Amazon search via Rand’s website. Dennis’ Sonic Laser Tape is $27.95 and Prime eligible.

5. Whiskers

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