DielmoOpenLiDAR

Since its beginnings in 2003 DIELMO 3D S.L. has been working in the development of software for the processing of LiDAR data, using it for our internal use in the production of all our LiDAR projects.

Knowing that each day there is more LiDAR data available that cover large extensions of territory, that in Spain a national program of LiDAR data acquisition was going to be prepared and that final users didn't have tools for access to this information, in 2007 DIELMO decided to take the lead and develop a new Open Source software for the processing of LiDAR data by end users, with the purpose that it will be a new reference tool for users and developers connected with LiDAR data.

The project's evolution has been:

1. Creation of a driver to access to LiDAR data in gvSIG
   With the help of the CIT we started to develop this driver that is the base to handle LiDAR data in different standard formats,  making posible provide gvSIG with basic tools that allow the developers work with LiDAR data in a more transparent and easier way.   On the other hand, gvSIG users will also be able to open original LiDAR data (LAS and BIN), visualize it overlaped with any other geographical information, consult the original values from each point and edit it. This powerfull tool of visualization is without any doubt, the tool that the majority of users will use to do a visual analysis of the data.
    
2. Gestor de proyectos LiDAR
   Once established at the previous stage the base for LiDAR developments in gvSIG, the second stage was the development of tools to manage big volumes of LiDAR data toguether with other GIS data as orthophotos or vectorial cartography. For that we developed a new gvSIG document besides the view, tables and map documents: The LiDAR document. 

3. Tools for the quality control of LiDAR flights
   In collaboration with IGN we have developed a new module that allows to do the quality control of the LiDAR flights automatically, obtaining as a result vectorial files with necessary information for a technician can evaluate if the flight execution was according  to the specifications.

4. Tools for basic products generation
   These tools were developed for internal use in all the production projects of DIELMO, allowing us to obtain better quality and precision in final products that the final products offered by other providers that use the commercial software available in the market. These tools allow us to generate DTMs, DSMs, intensity images, riverbed corrections, bridge eliminations, edge corrections, buildings and vegetation classifications, work by blocks and do mosaics on the final results, etc. At the moment all these tools are not public and compose our internal software called DielmoLiDAR, although we will not have any inconvenient to publish most of them if any entity finances the cost of the development.                                                                                 
    
5. Creation of new final products with added value
   Since a national coverage of LiDAR data is available and consequently decrease the adquisition cost close to 0, the number of applications are much more and still lots of ways to research. From basic products that we use to produce, we are working with experts in each area on the development of intelligent tools for the creation of new final products of added value for many different applications as forestry, environment, energy, civil engineering, municipal management, cartography, hydrography, telecommunications, geology, etc. Most of these developments will stay as internal use in DielmoLiDAR although surely we will publish for free some of them. If you have any question about  the possibility of use LiDAR data in a particular application, do not hesitate to contact us for we can study its viability.

Our intention is that DielmoOpenLiDAR become a reference for the cientific comunity specialized in the processing of LiDAR data thanks to its power and the ease way to implement new algorithms. For this reason, our idea is to allow the users to add new algorithms to complemnt the existing or to add new applications, integrating them in the easiest and transparent way, forgetting the visual part of the develpment and focusing only in the new algorithm. We think that the use of SEXTANTE is the best option to do this and that this will do grow the project with the inputs of different research groups interested in the development of this type of tools. In fact, all our internal developments are based on the use of the published part of the project and anybody can create their own tools without big efforts from our base.