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A Portable Laser Backpack For 3D Mapping

Posted by timothy on from the overkill-for-osm dept.

wooferhound writes "A portable laser backpack for 3D mapping has been developed at the University of California, Berkeley, where it is being hailed as a breakthrough technology capable of producing fast, automatic and realistic 3D mapping of difficult interior environments. ... The backpack is the first of a series of similar systems to work without being strapped to a robot or attached to a cart. At the same time, its data acquisition speed is very fast, as it collects the data while the human operator is walking; this is in contrast with existing systems in which the data is painstakingly collected in a stop-and-go fashion, resulting in days and weeks of data acquisition time. It utilizes novel sensor fusion algorithms that use cameras, lasers range finders and inertial measurement units to generate a textured, photo-realistic, 3D model that can operate without GPS input and that is a big challenge."

66 comments

  1. Ooooooo by Nabeel_co · · Score: 1

    Do want!!!! Every home should have one!

    1. Re:Ooooooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Don't cross the streams... it would be bad.

    2. Re:Ooooooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Way to get in an irrelevant political dig! What are you doing commenting here? I'm sure Youtube misses you.

    3. Re:Ooooooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given that a majority of republicans are now on record for reducing funds for care of the blind

      Citation or a retraction please.

    4. Re:Ooooooo by rainmouse · · Score: 1

      Abolutely, then we can find the secret passage way we always suspected was behind the bookcase!
      Though I'm not sure totally how Anne Frank would have responded to this technology.

    5. Re:Ooooooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, so we can all blind our neighbors with the laser beam.

      Given that a majority of republicans are now on record for reducing funds for care of the blind and they are about to take over the government, this might not be the best thing for UC Berkeley to have developed at this time.

      They're just trying to save money to take care of all the poor that Obama/Pelosi/Reid's policies are creating:

      Poverty stats show the damage

      In the second year of a brutal recession, the ranks of the American poor soared to their highest level in half a century and millions more are barely avoiding falling below the poverty line, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.

      About 44 million Americans - one in seven - lived last year in homes in which the income was below the poverty level, which is about $22,000 for a family of four. That is the largest number of people since the census began tracking poverty 51 years ago.

      YAAAY HOPENCHANGE!!!!

      SLAP!!!! - that's the sound of YOU being BITCH SLAPPED by FACTS.

    6. Re:Ooooooo by RDW · · Score: 1

      Field trials have already begun:

      http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/3998323

      However, it is not expected to replace a related device in certain specialised applications:

      http://fusedfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ghostbusters-girl-both.jpg

  2. Huh? by Type44Q · · Score: 1

    The backpack is the first of a series of similar systems to work without being strapped to a robot or attached to a cart.

    Nope; it apparently has to be strapped to a human (a slave, no doubt). Definitely an improvement, efficiency-wise. :P

    1. Re:Huh? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 3, Funny

      The backpack is the first of a series of similar systems to work without being strapped to a robot or attached to a cart.

      Nope; it apparently has to be strapped to a human (a slave, no doubt). Definitely an improvement, efficiency-wise. :P

      Or a student...

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:Huh? by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      The backpack is the first of a series of similar systems to work without being strapped to a robot or attached to a cart.

      Nope; it apparently has to be strapped to a human (a slave, no doubt). Definitely an improvement, efficiency-wise. :P

      Or a student...

      Or a rat...

    3. Re:Huh? by Khyber · · Score: 1

      It'd have to be a student. Only students are used to carrying such insanely large loads on their backs.

      It's a wonder I never developed a compacted spinal column due to the regular 50 pounds of books I'd carry in my backpack, every single day, and was able to grow to a happy six feet tall.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    4. Re:Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lucky you! I had to carry 70 pounds of books and I only made it to five ten :(

    5. Re:Huh? by skids · · Score: 1

      You joke, but In fact I routinely strap a large laptop setup to students and send them through the
      dorms during the summer doing a WiFi/frequency interference survey.

      They'd have a lot less back strain if we got a newer model, I suppose, but what I'd really like to see is
      for the WiFi survey equipment vendors to implement dead reckoning using the readily available
      MEMs accelerometer/magnetometer gear that is just a notch above what you might find in a PS3 Sixaxis
      controller. Right now, they have to shuffle around slowly, constantly clicking on a floor plan to tell the
      gear where they went. It would be much faster if they did not have to do that.

      And if the OP's system scales down to just-above-consumer-grade it might also kill the
      need to load architectural drawings. So really, we could tie it to a trained goat and get a good
      waste-level survey.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    6. Re:Huh? by skids · · Score: 1

      Actually it's more that only students are capable of navigating around furniture, closed doors, and janitors for $8/hour.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    7. Re:Huh? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I went through that crap from junior high through freshman high school, at which point they kicked me out and sent me to another school which was a little less structured. I'm 6'7".

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Huh? by badkarmadayaccount · · Score: 1

      Not to mention obsoleting GPS chips if you can fit it in a phone - think topological map comparison algorithm.

      --
      I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
  3. Aww, Heck! by Rollgunner · · Score: 1, Funny

    When I read the title, I thought the last word was "Zapping"

  4. Cavers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I can imagine this being quite useful for cavers (also known as spelunkers) by allowing them to model large caverns quickly to look for exits.

    Or, alternately, if it works in the dark because it's lasers, you could use it as an alternative to night vision.

    1. Re:Cavers by Ostracus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can imagine this being quite useful for cavers (also known as spelunkers) by allowing them to model large caverns quickly to look for exits.

      Or, alternately, if it works in the dark because it's lasers, you could use it as an alternative to night vision.

      Actually what came to mind was the mapping of building interiors for the purpose of historic preservation...or games. :)

      --
      Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
    2. Re:Cavers by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      That reminds me of when I was in college.....the way I got through my algorithms class, and kept myself focused, was by trying to think about how every algorithm could be used in a game. I never ended up being a game programmer, but now I appreciate algorithms for there own sake. Thinking in terms of games gave me that extra bit of motivation to get through to where I could see the beauty and goodness of it.

      --
      Qxe4
    3. Re:Cavers by miketheanimal · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm a caver. It would last about 30 seconds in most cave environments. It wouldn't even fit in the cave I explore most.

    4. Re:Cavers by beej · · Score: 2, Informative

      Speaking as someone who actually does cave survey, I dream of devices like this, I tell you.

      You guys might be amused to learn that one of the most powerful pieces of cave survey tech we currently use is a custom-built device called the Shetland Attack Pony, but it has nothing on this backpack thing.

    5. Re:Cavers by human-cyborg · · Score: 1

      Exactly what I was thinking too. I work in a building that has a highly irregular layout. No two floors are the same. It was hard enough to model in Sketchup, and I don't even want to think about doing the interior the same way.

      But for about 10 years now I've though that it would be perfect for a Quake II map. Now I think it would be good for a Left 4 Dead map, but yeah, I've got to get me one of those backpacks.

    6. Re:Cavers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      That's what she said!

  5. Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... is it waterproof?

  6. I don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do you fit the sharks in?

  7. This would have been great with Zork! by joelsanda · · Score: 1

    eom

    --
    The Luddites were ahead of their time.
  8. Not too stable... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would have loved to work on this :(

  9. PETA by Starteck81 · · Score: 1

    I don't think PETA will be happy about people attaching backpack straps and a hip belt to sharks.

    --
    "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
  10. Big Challenge by zAPPzAPP · · Score: 1

    But the resulting 3D model is a big challenge, so only the brightest of geniuses can make use of it.

    1. Re:Big Challenge by Scorpinox · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Every year more and more companies are releasing algorithms that are getting better at automatically turning that data into simple 3d models. As someone who reduces this "raw" point cloud data by hand, these new methods are both a blessing and a curse in terms of ease of use/job security.

    2. Re:Big Challenge by Yetihehe · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If your job can be replaced with a computer program, you should not be doing it, or you will be known as The Indexer.

      --
      Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
    3. Re:Big Challenge by Scorpinox · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yes, I'm painfully aware of this. Lucky for me, there is still a lot of QA/QC work to be done to make sure that the program worked correctly and the model isn't screwed up.

    4. Re:Big Challenge by Yetihehe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So in this case those programs are just tools which make your job easier. Congratulations, you still have job security and not mindless work. In many other fields this is the same. People who did mindless work, now can do other tasks which are probably more gratifying and use their intellect more.

      --
      Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
  11. 4d6 damage from the rifle, 3d6 from the carbine. by Lanboy · · Score: 2

    We are right on schedule, heading in to tech level 8.

  12. As Someone Who 3D Maps for a Living by Scorpinox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This thing is very very cool. Though we do have faster ways already than "painstakingly collecting in a stop and go fashion". I've worked with lasers attached to low-flying aircraft and also attached to a truck that can drive about 40 miles an hour. Two passes with the truck is just as good as this backpacks data. We primarily mount tracks on the truck and drive it on railroad tracks to collect data for upcoming rail projects. You can check out the technology at www.ambercore.com/titan.php

    1. Re:As Someone Who 3D Maps for a Living by Scorpinox · · Score: 1

      Just to add to my previous comment, working without gps is actually a bad thing for surveying work. For surveying work for the government/engineering firms, you need to show the model in state plane coordinates. Have you ever seen those little medal medallions on the sidewalk? Those are set by land surveyers who placed them with a very accurate GPS data to later come back and use for land size disputes, future engineering work, etc. It's what helps the electric company, the building contracters, the drainage people, all coordinate and make sure that whatever they're doing doesn't interfere with eachother.

    2. Re:As Someone Who 3D Maps for a Living by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It says it can work without GPS, so perhaps it's optional? No doubt there will be ways to register the recorded data.

    3. Re:As Someone Who 3D Maps for a Living by nospam007 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Trucks and planes are not very useful in prehistoric caves.

    4. Re:As Someone Who 3D Maps for a Living by Scorpinox · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hence why I said that this is very cool :) I can think of more than a few instances where this backpack would come in handy. Unfortunately, noone is really dumping a lot of money into mapping caves, since there isn't anyone about to start constructing inside them. Right now the majority of the laser scan work I've done is for buildings where the original schematics are lost, or painfully out of date. I did once scan a rockslide so that someone could analyze what went wrong after the fact, but even that was over a large highway.

    5. Re:As Someone Who 3D Maps for a Living by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They don't "placed them with very accurate GPS data", they place them and THEN use GPS to determine where they are.

      I mean really, the actual coordinates isn't the most important thing, having the survey nail where you want it, is.

    6. Re:As Someone Who 3D Maps for a Living by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, noone is really dumping a lot of money into mapping caves, since there isn't anyone about to start constructing inside them

      Obviously never met a Dwarf Fortress player.

  13. It's called lidar... by Obfuscant · · Score: 2, Informative
    and it is nothing new. it's been flown in planes (by the USGS to map the coastline of the US), attached to vehicles of all kinds. Yes, the easiest data collection system is one where the lidar is motionless (except the scanning head, of course) so system motion doesn't have to be backed out of the data, but we've been putting lidar on so many platforms that it is nothing really new to put it in a backpack.

    It's like the difference between a 1Gb thumb drive and a 2Gb one. Same technology, smaller package. Advances in MEMS sensors for acceleration and position make knowing the position of the lidar base much easier and more accurate. This "advance" is really nothing that anyone knowlegable in the art couldn't predict or produce.

    1. Re:It's called lidar... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The miniaturization is likely what's the most remarkable, not the technology itself.

      A better example would be the video cameras of a decade or two ago with our modern day handheld cameras. It was entirely predictable that it would become smaller, and because there were various types of cameras you could say it's hardly amazing that they went from bulky, two handed monstrosities to our convenient, pocket sized camcorders, but that would be disingenuous. Making things *smaller* (or alternately, bigger for some things) is remarkable when done to an extreme.

      Unless, of course, the lidars out there right now are small enough to carry by a single human and fast enough to scan at a walking pace. In which case, yes. Just more of the same.

    2. Re:It's called lidar... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Unless, of course, the lidars out there right now are small enough to carry by a single human and fast enough to scan at a walking pace. In which case, yes. Just more of the same.

      They are, and have been for quite a while.

    3. Re:It's called lidar... by occamsarmyknife · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, the issues of indoor 3D mapping are significantly more challenging than doing so from a plane or ground vehicle outdoors.

      Advances in MEMS sensors for acceleration and position make knowing the position of the lidar base much easier and more accurate.

      Inertial sensors arn't a panacea, especially the MEMs-based ones. MEMs-based inertial sensors are MUCH less accurate than the systems used in survey equipment. Even the best high-end MEMs inertial systems are quite noisy, and while top-of-the-line optical (not MEMs) gyros can be extremely accurate and give you orientation with very low drift over time, the basic premise of an accelerometer makes knowing position impossible over any length of time. Remember - you have to integrate the signal TWICE to get position, that adds up to a lot of noise. Also, I'm pretty sure from looking at their backpack that they arn't using a MEMs based IMU.

      and it is nothing new. it's been flown in planes (by the USGS to map the coastline of the US), attached to vehicles of all kinds.

      When you are outdoors you have access to GPS, and that makes all the difference. It gives you the corrections needed to maintain an accurate knowledge of position over long distances and after sharp or erratic maneuvers. Additionally, when your sensors are mounted to a plane or vehicle the scan to scan motion is roughly linear, i.e. planes don't jump up and down and side to side a lot. People walking bounce all over the place, and that makes your position estimates from accelerometers alone next to useless for more than a few steps.

      This "advance" is really nothing that anyone knowlegable in the art couldn't predict or produce.

      There's a reason why there are lots of companies that provide high-accuracy outdoor mapping, both ground and air-based, and none that provide high-accuracy indoor mapping without requiring fixed, surveyed markers and slow, step-by-step scanning from rigidly mounted scanners. Nobody knowledgable in the art, as you say, can do it yet.

      To do indoor mapping successfully you have to align each data scan with other data scans - the most common way to do this to use a SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) algorithm. While this has been well explored using planar lidar data from a rolling base in 2D, and reasonable well implemented on a rolling platform in 3D (often assuming level floors, etc...) putting it on a human means you have to solve the problem fully in 3D with noisy data and very poor odometry over long distances. This has been demonstrated (somewhat poorly) in the past on a single-floor basis, but aligning data from multiple floors or wings connected by a single long corridor is not at all a solved problem. The end result of most of these indoor approaches is a map that is topologically correct, but spatially very flawed. Without a global reference to correct your position, a long, straight, hallway may curve a little bit, a turn that should be 45 degrees might end up as 40 degrees, and those errors very quickly add up to a spatially incorrect map.

      --
      "Until the become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious"
  14. Boooring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let me know when they have a portable laser backpack for killing aliens.

  15. if you add bolton by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    everything seems to go all explosions in a hurry.

  16. Alternate use - camera fogger? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Since it sounds like it is able to scan a room with a laser and detect the reflections I'd like to see a version that can detect cameras and blind them automatically.

    Something like a combination of their system and the spyfinder.

    False positives would be no big deal if you've got enough laser sources - its not going to hurt to "blind" a false positive reflection.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    1. Re:Alternate use - camera fogger? by Beezlebub33 · · Score: 2, Informative

      False positives would be no big deal if you've got enough laser sources - its not going to hurt to "blind" a false positive reflection.

      Unless it's my eye!

      --
      The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
  17. more exciting when you're the 'alien'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ALL the killing will be over soon, in conjunction with ALL of the manufactured hatred, fear & disregard for each other (from here or 'there'). thanks.

  18. Link to research page by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    More information here

  19. Great and all, but is it waterproof? by noidentity · · Score: 1
    Sounds like a great device, but the summary left out this very important piece of information: is it waterproof?

    - asks an interested shark

  20. lol by crazygamerz · · Score: 1

    that thing sure looks portable

  21. I just don't get it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why are they putting the backpack on a human and not on a friggin' shark?

  22. IDDT by linebackn · · Score: 1

    So if you type in "IDDT", will it show you the entire map including secret areas?

  23. Revolutionary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is interesting to be sure, but this is just another implementation of S.L.A.M. (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) or P.T.A.M. (Parallel Tracking And Mapping). They have been used in robotics and augmented reality for a couple of years now respectively.

  24. We've got you now! by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

    The game is over Mr. Escher...

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  25. This could be a quantum leap for cave mappers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't know about other geeks here, but I love to rockclimb and especially spelunk (explore caves).

    Believe it or not, most caves are not mapped. There is a reason for this- complex surveying equipment is needed, as GPS embedded devices
    usually cease to work in caves (rocks shield the signal).

    I would kill to have one of these units, and I am going to scrutinize the design to see if a homebrew version could be made. If I had something I
    could hike in with, I could map any cave I enter, and then use Linux's Aven cave surveying application to view them on my laptop, and add serious
    data for other cavers to use, possibly saving lives in an emergency.

    I nearly drowned in the last cave I was in in Japan while on study abroad, in part due to no available maps. If we had had one, we would have known
    ahead of time the cave's elevation internally left a dangerous flooded worm-like passage 50m long, as big as a man, when it rains. We could have planned ahead,
    and I could have explored miles deep into the cave systems in Okayama prefecture.

    I can't wait to see a citizen model of this available to cavers- it would be like a revolution in caving, like the GPS was to hikers and hunters.

  26. Already subsumed by 3D cameras (aka Depth Cameras) by HizookRobotics · · Score: 1

    This is an interesting idea. However, it is already being subsumed by 3D cameras, more commonly known as depth cameras (a la Microsoft's Kinect), that produce dense 3D pointclouds and color images at framerate. The best example is work by Dieter Fox (et. al.) from University of Washington and Intel Labs Seattle that uses a depth camera to do (near) real-time 3D mapping of indoor scenes -- sort of like a Google Streetview indoors. The benefits of depth camera solutions are multi-fold: much lower cost as sensors like Kinect become available, pointclouds and camera images from a single (registered) source, and better portability.

  27. hmm... by flanker711 · · Score: 1

    Should we call for airstrike?

  28. crime scene use by virginiajim · · Score: 1

    It would be useful in mapping crime scenes. What happens, though, if you are outdoors; say a traffic accident with lots of vehicles?