From Lost Mayan Cities to Fixing Your Teeth, How 3D Laser Scanning Technology Has Impacted the World

LiDAR, the technology to scan the environment and objects in it, has touched many areas of society. Thanks to LiDAR, there is more renewable energy in production, safer roads & highways, more affordable food, and millions of people with straighter teeth. What is this wonder drug and how has it touched so many facets of life?

In the early 1960s, shortly after the first successful operations of lasers, LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) was created. Simply put LiDAR is a way to scan objects or the environment using non-destructive lasers, working much like echolocation but with light.

LiDAR enables you to scan objects with milliliter accuracy from thousands of feet away using a plane, UAV, car, tripod or even a cell phone. In the end, you get a very accurate 3D scan of the object or environment, which can be turned into a model.

This 3D scan data is used to make decisions about the world around us. Farmers use it to analyze crop growth, Departments of Transportation use it to maintain roads, the FBI uses it for crime scene preservation, and orthodontists use it for dental solutions like Invisalign. Archaeologists have even used this tech to scan the jungles of Central America in search of long lost Mayan cities.