Laser scanning and its potential to support 3D panoramic recording

Today very fast terrestrial laser scanners are available which can be very well combined with panoramic cameras to make 3D-panoramic recording possible. Due to the very precise depth information of the laser scanner and the high resolved color information provided by the CCD sensor of the panoramic camera 3D-panoramic images of high quality can be obtained. In order to assess the performance of such integrated systems, this presentation gives a short introduction in the ranging principles applied in terrestrial laser scanning. Commercially available terrestrial laser scanners using the measurement principles applicable for panoramic mapping will be presented. Their technical parameters will be discussed with regard to range, angular and depth resolution. Also the problem of moving panoramic mapping will be addressed