Category: News

Lost City Revealed by Lidar Terrain Anomalies We have grown accustomed to reading about lost cities being discovered in Central and South America, but more rare are the cases where this occurs in Europe. Researchers from the University of Córdoba believe they have finally pinpointed the location of Madinat al-Zāhira, a legendary lost city that has eluded historians for over […]

Drone Survey to Help Redevelop Delhi Parks The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is embracing the future of surveying by launching an ambitious campaign to map and revitalize the sprawling green spaces of Hauz Khas. Moving away from traditional manual surveying methods, the DDA is utilizing high-resolution photogrammetry paired with Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) technology to capture the landscape from […]

Data for Better Water Management Arizona State University (ASU) and the Salt River Project (SRP) have launched a groundbreaking collaboration with Airborne Snow Observatories Inc. (ASO) to revolutionize how water supplies are measured in the Salt River watershed. For the first time in Arizona, a research team is utilizing an aircraft equipped with state-of-the-art scanning lidar and imaging spectrometers to […]

Why You Should Own Your Geospatial Data In the digital era of transportation infrastructure, data is as foundational as concrete and steel. Yet, a critical issue often lurks in the fine print: not all geospatial service companies allow their clients to own the data collected on their behalf. For transportation agencies and project owners, this can impede the future of […]

Robot Assistants to Patrol Hong Kong Parks The Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has deployed a new squad of four-legged assistants to patrol the city’s Wetland Park: robot dogs equipped with advanced artificial intelligence and lidar sensors. These robotic surveyors are tasked with navigating complex terrain to monitor the health and status of the local vegetation. By utilizing lidar […]

Researchers from the University of California San Diego and the University of Haifa have announced a discovery in the waters of the Dor Lagoon, Israel. Using a blend of traditional underwater excavation and advanced techniques, the team identified three distinct ship cargo assemblages submerged in the ancient harbor. These finds date from the 11th to the 6th centuries BCE, spanning […]

End-to-end Fusion3DGS Researchers from Southwest Jiaotong University have unveiled Fusion3DGS, a new end-to-end framework that shakes up the world of 3D instance segmentation. Moving away from the industry’s heavy reliance on expensive, densely annotated 3D point clouds, this novel approach harnesses the power of 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) combined with multi-view RGB images. By utilizing 2D instance masks the system […]

Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane University, has accidentally discovered a massive, lost Mayan city while browsing the internet. While scrolling through page 16 of a Google search, Auld-Thomas stumbled upon a legacy lidar survey originally commissioned for environmental monitoring by a Mexican organization. Upon closer inspection of this publicly available data, he realized the laser pulses had captured […]

In this upcoming demo, Cintoo will show how organizations across AEC, industry and manufacturing are strategically optimizing their digitalization processes and unlocking business value from their 3D scan data. Register Here What you’ll see in the demo: – How to transform massive point clouds into high-fidelity, cloud-based digital assets that are easy to access and share– How to centralize reality […]

California is countering wildfire threats with a massive injection of high-tech assets, marking one year since the devastating Los Angeles fires. The main feature for geospatial enthusiasts is the launch of the state’s first-ever statewide lidar mapping effort. This initiative has processed over 100 million acres of data, creating a seamless, high-resolution 3D map of terrain and vegetation across the […]

Velodyne Space to Showcase Counter-UAS System at CES 2026 David Hall and his team at Velodyne Space will showcase a counter-UAS system at CES 2026 that represents a clear shift toward safer, capture-based approaches to addressing drone threats. Rather than destroying drones mid-air, the system is designed to safely capture them using a combination of lidar sensing, AI-assisted detection, and […]

Drone Lidar Bathymetry Maps Australia’s Coast in 3D In a significant move for maritime and climate research, a multi-institution team in Australia has secured $650,000 in ARC Linkage funding to establish the CoastElBathy facility. This project involves the acquisition of advanced drone-based bathymetric lidar scanners, specifically the TDOT3 and TDOT7 Green sensors. These specialized units use green laser technology, which […]

Dr. Lilian Pintea of the Jane Goodall Institute to Deliver Keynote at Geo Week 2026“Mapping Technologies Accelerating Conservation” Spotlights How Geospatial Tools Drive Real-World Impact Denver, CO – December 11, 2025 — Geo Week announced that Dr. Lilian Pintea, Vice President of Conservation Science at the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), will deliver a visionary keynote presentation at Geo Week 2026, […]

Underwater Robots Inspect Saraighat Bridge: NFR Advances Railway Safety The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is taking infrastructure maintenance to new depths. In a major upgrade for bridge safety, the railway authority has deployed Remotely Operated Robotic Vehicles (RORVs) to inspect the submerged foundations of its most critical bridges. Among the structures benefitting from this high-tech checkup is the iconic Saraighat […]

Lost Valley of Cities Revealed by Lidar A groundbreaking study using lidar to uncover a lost valley of cities in Ecuador’s Upano Valley has revealed a civilization that rivals the complexity of Mayan settlements. Deep in Ecuador’s Upano Valley, archaeologists used airborne lidar technology to model the earth under the dense rainforest canopy, uncovering a vast network of settlements that […]

3D River Mapping with VZ-600iRIEGL’s VZ-600i hybrid terrestrial laser scanner is advancing 3D river mapping in some of Europe’s most challenging waterways. Recent projects on Vienna’s Danube Canal and London’s River Thames showcase how this versatile system captures high-precision 3D datasets, even in areas previously inaccessible for detailed survey work. 3D River Mapping Lidar on Vienna’s Danube CanalIn Vienna, RIEGL […]

3D Digital Twin Northstowe by Skytech Cambridge Northstowe is making headlines not just as the UK’s largest new town since Milton Keynes, but as a digital pioneer. In a massive surveying effort, Skytech Cambridge has created a comprehensive 3D digital twin of the developing site in Cambridgeshire. This project moves beyond traditional 2D mapping, offering a dynamic, virtual replica that […]

Earth Observation Gaussian Splatting (EOGS++) Enhances 3D Reconstruction Earth Observation Gaussian Splatting (EOGS++) is transforming 3D reconstruction from satellite imagery, streamlining workflows and improving accuracy. Developed by a research team including Pierrick Bournez and Luca Savant Aira, this new method tackles the traditional headaches of satellite-based modeling. Previous workflows relied on complex pre-processing steps like pansharpening and external optimization tools, […]

Quantum Lidar Breakthrough Redefines Covert 3D Sensing A new quantum lidar system has fundamentally redefined covert and robust sensing, achieving an astonishing 1000-fold improvement in Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) over classical devices. This breakthrough, developed by researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, leverages the peculiar properties of correlated photon pairs to gather […]

Teradar has raised $150 million in funding to commercialize the world’s first terahertz (THz) vision sensor. This technology aims to solve the key perception gap left by traditional sensor suites. While lidar provides the millimeter-precision data essential for high-fidelity environmental 3D modeling, its performance degrades severely in fog, heavy rain, or snow. Radar, while weather-resistant, lacks the necessary resolution for […]

Lidar Coastal Digital Models Show Stable Beaches Despite public fears of widespread coastal retreat, the average width of California’s beaches has remained remarkably stable over the last four decades. Far from disappearing uniformly, a new study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography confirms that while change is constant, the wins and losses largely balance out statewide. This resilience has defied […]

IM Motors Automotive Vision with 3D Lidar The IM Motors flagship LS9 isn’t just a luxury SUV; it is a mobile 3D scanning lab. Redefining automotive vision, the LS9 elevates intelligent driving by integrating a perception system as standard equipment. This powerful setup is a massive leap for Level 3 autonomous capabilities, making the road ahead a crystal-clear digital environment […]

The RoboSense and PIX Moving partnership is reshaping urban mobility by integrating advanced 3D lidar technology into autonomous Moving Spaces like the RoboBus and RoboShop. RoboSense and PIX Moving are merging the physical and digital worlds by forming a powerhouse partnership to accelerate the mass deployment of autonomous “Moving Spaces” like the RoboBus and RoboShop. This collaboration is a thrilling […]

Mobile Mapping Lidar: Mosaic Meridian Meets Ranger for Efficient 3D Data Mosaic and New Compass Solutions are making the capture and extraction of lidar mobile mapping data easier than ever through the integration of the Mosaic Meridian Mobile Mapping System with Ranger and Pathfinder, allowing quick insights from lidar and panoramic imagery. In this article: The New Mosaic Meridian and […]

HBIM and 3D Scanning for Historic Preservation This article details how integrating 3D Laser Scanning with Heritage Building Information Modeling (HBIM) is revolutionizing the conservation of historic structures. Using high-precision lidar technology, conservators can capture millions of data points, creating a millimeter-accurate point cloud of every architectural feature. This “Scan-to-HBIM” workflow takes the raw 3D data and converts it into […]