[x3d-public] LASer (LAS) File Format Exchange Activities – ASPRS

[Don Brutzman]

Wondering if anyone is familiar with LAS?

http://www.asprs.org/committee-general/laser-las-file-format-exchange-activities.html
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What is the LAS Format?

The LAS file format is a public file format for the interchange of 3-dimensional point cloud data data between data users. Although developed primarily for exchange of lidar point cloud data, this format supports the exchange of any 3-dimensional x,y,z tuplet. This binary file format is a alternative to proprietary systems or a generic ASCII file interchange system used by many companies. The problem with proprietary systems is obvious in that data cannot be easily taken from one system to another. There are two major problems with the ASCII file interchange. The first problem is performance because the reading and interpretation of ASCII elevation data can be very slow and the file size can be extremely large, even for small amounts of data. The second problem is that all information specific to the lidar data is lost. The LAS file format is a binary file format that maintains information specific to the lidar nature of the data while not being overly complex.
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Topic relevance: one of the few remaining open issues with X3D geometric compression is the encoding of point and point-cloud data. Online references:

X3D Compressed Binary Encoding Activity
http://www.web3d.org/working-groups/x3d/compressed-binary-encoding-activity

X3D Compressed Binary Encoding Call For Contributions
http://www.web3d.org/working-groups/x3d/compressed-binary/x3d-compressed-binary-encoding-call-contributions

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br       brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270,  MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA   +1.831.656.2149
X3D graphics, virtual worlds, navy robotics http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman