How LiDAR Works
LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It works similar to radar, except that instead of using sound waves it uses light. It is capture with a LiDAR scanner that typically looks like this: (Our camera is attached to the top of these.)
The scanner shoots out thousands of lasers, and the return on the light tells the scanner how far the object it is scanning is. This information is recorded in the form of a point. Each of these points contains the xyz position in relation to the distance from the scanner. Because it is sending out thousands of lasers a second, it is gathering thousands of points of information. These thousands of points come together and take the shape of an object in what is called a “point cloud.”