The Gecko-Four™ polygon scanner from Precision Laser Scanning LLC is used for lidar scanning. The Gecko-Four features a 25-mm aperture for a range of >200 m, with its four facets...

Active optical technologies such as lidar have been scientifically evaluated in a broad range of fields. Nikolaus Schmitt provides a short overview of key application fields and lidar technologies...

When autonomous vehicles hit the streets, they navigate with the help of avalanche photo­diodes, or APDs. These semiconductor photodetectors capture returning laser pulses as part of lidar systems,...

Commercial applications such as crop disease detection, environmental monitoring, geological exploration and infrastructure inspection are prime examples of how the confluence of drones and sensing...

Over the last few years, carmakers have been relentlessly pursuing “the car of the future” — one that is electric, autonomous, and connected, and that contains a full range of...

A TOF illustration generated using COMSOL modeling software. Courtesy of SABIC. Designing new automotive lidar systems is a complex process, made easier with access to finite element method...

From tracking ash plumes from volcanic eruptions to measuring water vapor, multispectral imagers, IR sensors and lidar systems in space are yielding critical data leading to better forecasting models...

The Consumer Electronics Show, the signature annual event of the Consumer Technology Association, kicked off Jan. 5 in Las Vegas. Photonics Media is tracking the technology demonstrations,...

Despite advancements in airborne, single-photon lidar, existing systems have relatively large payloads and high energy consumption. Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of...

Self-driving cars bring both opportunities and challenges to photonics-based sensors. Autonomous vehicles will need dozens of sensors of many types — lidar, camera, radar, and ultrasonic...

Summer comes to the icy vistas of the Antarctic shores. The winds die down a bit, and the temperature climbs (sometimes to above freezing). Most remarkable is the burgeoning population of the unusual...

A national group formed by Paul McManamon of Exciting Technology, in conjunction with SPIE, is working to develop standardized tests to evaluate lidar technologies. Despite their crucial role in both...

High-performance, ultra-narrowband interference filters with > 95% transmission, less than 0.1 nm bandwidths, steep edges, a square spectral shape, wide range blocking measured at > OD 8 (-80 dB),...

A team of researchers led by archaeologists from the University of Arizona has used a laser mapping system from the air to uncover the buried ruins of an ancient Mayan site. After determining that an...

Hamamatsu Corporation is the North American subsidiary of Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (Japan), a leading manufacturer of devices for the generation and measurement of infrared, visible, and ultraviolet...

The M2 and M3 from RoboSense are mid- and long-range lidar sensors, respectively, for automotive applications. The M2 uses 2D scanning and MEMS chips that allow for a range of 200 m at 10%...

In a newly developed lidar system, researchers at Kyoto University integrated 3D flash and beam-scanning laser light sources to create a 3D, nonmechanical lidar system. The system can measure the...

Teledyne Technologies Inc. has taken full ownership of Optech Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of laser-based survey and digital imaging instrumentation. Terms of the transaction, which was...

The ubiquity of smart devices and the telecommunications networks on which they rely is raising demand for electromagnetic beamforming technologies. The wide range of applications that make use of...

3D imaging has taken off, with applications in cellphones, cars, robots, and more. Now, companies and researchers are looking to what’s next: 4D. While 3D imaging captures information...