A Synthetic LiDAR Scanner for VTK

In recent years, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanners have become more prevalent in the scientific community. They capture a “2.5-D” image of a scene by sending out thousands of laser pulses and using time-of-flight calculations to determine the distance to the first reflecting surface in the scene. Rather than setting up a collection of objects in real life and actually sending lasers into the scene, one can simply create a scene out of 3d models and “scan” it by casting rays at the models. This is a great resource for any researchers who work with 3D model/surface/point data and LiDAR data. The synthetic scanner can be used to produce data sets for which a ground truth is known in order to ensure algorithms are behaving properly before moving to “real” LiDAR scans. Also, noise can be added to the points to attempt to simulate a real LiDAR scan for researchers who do not have access to the very expensive equipment required to obtain real scans.