Debra F. Laefer

h-index34
2papers
4,423citations

2 Papers

1.2DCApr 11, 2017
Toward a new approach for massive LiDAR data processing

V-H Cao, K-X Chu, Nhien-An Le-Khac et al.

Laser scanning (also known as Light Detection And Ranging) has been widely applied in various application. As part of that, aerial laser scanning (ALS) has been used to collect topographic data points for a large area, which triggers to million points to be acquired. Furthermore, today, with integrating full wareform (FWF) technology during ALS data acquisition, all return information of laser pulse is stored. Thus, ALS data are to be massive and complexity since the FWF of each laser pulse can be stored up to 256 samples and density of ALS data is also increasing significantly. Processing LiDAR data demands heavy operations and the traditional approaches require significant hardware and running time. On the other hand, researchers have recently proposed parallel approaches for analysing LiDAR data. These approaches are normally based on parallel architecture of target systems such as multi-core processors, GPU, etc. However, there is still missing efficient approaches/tools supporting the analysis of LiDAR data due to the lack of a deep study on both library tools and algorithms used in processing this data. In this paper, we present a comparative study of software libraries and algorithms to optimise the processing of LiDAR data. We also propose new method to improve this process with experiments on large LiDAR data. Finally, we discuss on a parallel solution of our approach where we integrate parallel computing in processing LiDAR data.

1.1CVNov 10, 2016
Variables effecting photomosaic reconstruction and ortho-rectification from aerial survey datasets

Jonathan Byrne, Debra Laefer

Unmanned aerial vehicles now make it possible to obtain high quality aerial imagery at a low cost, but processing those images into a single, useful entity is neither simple nor seamless. Specifically, there are factors that must be addressed when merging multiple images into a single coherent one. While ortho-rectification can be done, it tends to be expensive and time consuming. Image stitching offers a more economical, low-tech approach. However direct application tends to fail for low-elevation imagery due to one or more factors including insufficient keypoints, parallax issues, and homogeneity of the surveyed area. This paper discusses these problems and possible solutions when using techniques such as image stitching and structure from motion for generating ortho-rectified imagery. These are presented in terms of actual Irish projects including the Boland's Mills building in Dublin's city centre, the Kilmoon Cross Farm, and the Richview buildings on the University College Dublin campus. Implications for various Irish industries are explained in terms of both urban and rural projects.