Analysis of Laserscanner Data with a Modular and Automatic Softwaretool

Processing of laserscanner data taken for exploration of natural objects is different from the methods used for artifical objects such as buildings, bridges, etc. While there the interest lies on visualisation of a small set of 3D-objects, in the case of nature scanning the focus is rather on the extraction of characteristic data from the raw scans. Usually the amount of raw data is much larger and a lot of data may be reused to extract different types of parameters depending on the fields of research.

As a consequence standard software used to process scans of artifical objects does not fit the needs of evaluation of natural scans in all ways. The larger amount of raw data requires, that more automatic processing structures are supported by the software. On the other hand a flexible and interactive way for data processing is required to support different research methods.

The described softwaretool meets these demands by implementing a modular concept: multiple modules may be added to a frame program at runtime. These modules may be import-, export-, transform- and visualization objects. Workflows are visualized as process trees. Using these trees all steps of processing are available to the user at any time. A graphical scripting mechanism guarantees that once designed processing workflows can be reused. The consequent use of Microsofts .NET-Technology makes the tool a flexible and easily extendable software package.