ABSTRACT
Laser scanning (LS) is an emerging remote sensing technology that is continuously broadening its application field. Section 5.1 of this chapter presents the principles of LS systems and discusses the use of the LS principle on different platforms: airborne laser scanning (ALS), terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), mobile LS. ALS is efficiently used for rapid, accurate digital surface and elevation model generation and is becoming a competitor of airborne photogrammetry and interferometric radar. TLS is used in applications previously considered typical fields of conventional geodetic or engineering surveying. Mobile LS is a cutting-edge mobile mapping method capable of rapidly acquiring 3D data about transportation corridors and the environment.
This section also talks about image processing as a growing field, commonly used to improve raw images received from various resources. It mentions ultraviolet imaging as a method of photographing objects using reflected UV light, as opposed to the imaging of UV fluorescence.
Section 5.2 defines post-processing as a crucial task in knowledge discovery in databases (KDD). It is essential to visualize the extracted knowledge in such a way that users can interpret the knowledge easily. Data post-processing methods are divided into two categories: data visualization and data summarization. It notes that effective post-processing visualization is important for a variety of government, corporate, and industrial applications.
Section 5.3 discusses artificial intelligence (AI), the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. Activities in AI include searching, recognizing patterns, and making logical inferences. The section also explains AI techniques used for system diagnostics, i.e., the process of inferring the cause of any abnormal or unexpected behavior.
