Australian Police Deploy 3D Crime Scene Scanner 65
angry tapir writes "Police in the Australian state of Queensland will employ a handheld laser scanner that can be used to map crime scenes, including in areas where there is no GPS reception. The police will use the Australian developed Zebedee laser scanner: A LiDAR scanner that is mounted on a spring. As a user walks around, the spring moves and the scanner captures the surrounding area. Software processing then uses the data to construct a 3D model. Previously the technology has been used to capture areas of cultural significance, such as the interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. As an added bonus, the Zebedee looks ridiculous when in use."
Cave mapping (Score:5, Interesting)
My first thought was that this would be a really cool method of mapping caves. It turns out that this system has already been put to that use (http://www.lidarnews.com/content/view/9581/2/ [lidarnews.com]).
I wonder how long it will be before this kind of thing is accessible to individuals.