LIDAR

Volvo has today announced that its next-generation of vehicles will come with the option of LiDAR sensors built into the roof, which will be used to guide the cars down stretches of highway all on their own.

Next-gen 3D cameras are on the way, capable of rendering spatial images in unprecedented resolution and speed. The MegaX research camera captures single-photon light levels at up to 24,000 frames per second, paving the way for safer autonomous cars.

Archaeologists have used laser technology to map a 100-km (62-mile) Maya stone road that could have been built 1,300 years ago to help with the invasion of an isolated city in modern-day Mexico at the command of the warrior queen Lady K’awiil Ajaw.

The Trijicon Ventus looks like a set of binoculars, but in actuality it's the world's first hand-held device capable of providing three-dimensional wind data at multiple points between a shooter and a target up to 500 yards (457 m) away.

Glamos is a tiny device that uses LIDAR technology to project a kind of virtual touchscreen anywhere one is needed, turning TVs and projectors into giant motion-controlled displays that you don’t need to actually touch.

Intel has launched the RealSense lidar camera L515, which it says is the smallest and most power-efficient, high resolution LiDAR camera in the world. It's also relatively inexpensive.

Taking inspiration from the traditional cane, a team of researchers has come up with a LiDAR-enabled robotic assistant which offers light-touch support for the mobility-impaired. Dubbed Canine, the device improves the user's spacial self-awareness, and thus, their walking stability.

Researchers from MIT and NASA's Langley Research Center have been modifying quadrotor drones to allow a fleet to work together to zip through the trees of a thick forest without the need for GPS navigation, talking to each other wirelessly as they fly.

​You might think that with all their cameras and other sensors, self-driving cars can handle any road in any location. That actually isn't the case, although it soon may be, thanks to MIT's new MapLite system.

Autonomous vehicles are getting better at sensing their surroundings, but even they still need to be able to directly see a hazard to react to it. Now, a Stanford team is developing a laser-based system that may allow driverless cars to see around blind corners.

After a year of development, design firm Moment Factory has successfully realized GRiD, a large-scale, real-life version of Pong. The game uses LiDAR to track player movements, letting teams of two act as paddles on a giant projected game board.

The ruins of a gigantic Mayan city have been discovered under the blanket of the Guatemalan jungle, by bouncing lasers through the trees to reveal thousands of previously-unknown structures in a process the research team calls "digital deforestation."