Advanced High-Resolution 3D Flash Imaging Lidar Transmitter & Receiver
LCI has devised and is now developing a new large-array, flash imaging 3D receiver
technology that provides range precision comparable to or better than a ROIC-based approach,
but is not constrained to the modest array sizes imposed by ROIC unit cell minimum size limitations.
The new LCI 3D approach is intensified for near photon counting performance, provides a large
intra-scene dynamic range, and can be implemented in array sizes exceeding 512 x 512 using
existing technology. The LCI 3D receiver approach is scalable for integration into small UAV
platforms with payload capacity in the 5-10 lb range, making it suitable for Jigsaw and ROAR®
applications.
Lite Cycles has used this camera to obtain high-resolution 3D imagery in a lab setting. The images below
include images taken by the 3D camera and demonstrate its imaging capability.
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The upper image on the left is taken with a range-gated camera. The image consists of 4 steps of
different heights: 1/2", 1", 2", and 4". The step target is of nominally uniform reflectance. In this image,
the viewer cannot distinguish the differences in ranges of each step.
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The lower image shows the same step target using LCI's RT3DTM camera. In this image,
the range has been translated into shadings, and the differences in shadings are clearly apparent.
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This image shows the data from the RT3DTM camera rendered into a 3D image. As is apparent from the image,
range on the order of 1/2 inch is distinguishable in this data (click on the image to view full size).
This data is in a raw format, without having had any smoothing or averaging algorithms applied.
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