Among its unique features, the MS-96 includes a 20,000 lumen lighting system that optimizes scans in dark environments. This unique functionality once again illustrates the perfect modularity of the Viametris mobile laser scanner, allowing you to continue to see the world in all its colors, day and night.
Light emitters, lidar laser beams make it possible to capture geometric information with or without ambient light. These are active sensors. This is not the case for cameras which are passive sensors. A camera simply accepts incoming light to print an instantaneous impression of the scene on its lens. So if the ambient light is low, the snapshot is very dark. This is why quickly after the commercial appearance of cameras, the flash was invented. Fortunately, we are no longer at the point of the flashlight exploding powder…
The lighting system integrated into the MS-96 has been specially designed to meet the challenges of poorly lit environments. With a light output of 20,000 lumens (several times car headlights!), it allows effective scanning in particularly dark environments such as tunnels, caves, unlit parking lots or buildings under construction without electricity. This 360° light intensity ensures high-quality scans even in total darkness. With the controller’s user-friendly and intuitive interface, users can quickly adjust the light intensity of 20,000 lumens according to the specific lighting conditions of the working environment. In a fraction of a second, as soon as there is sufficient natural light, this additional lighting can be deactivated, thus avoiding overexposure of images while preserving battery energy consumption.
The MS-96’s built-in cameras require a light source to capture color images. Without adequate lighting, scans would produce “black and white” point clouds, thereby losing an essential dimension of visual analysis. Indeed, the colorized point clouds provide nuances and contrasts which considerably improve the interpretation of the data. These nuances make it possible to identify details which would otherwise be invisible in simple reflectivity (return of intensity of the light signal from lidars). Additionally, point cloud colorization makes images usable for a variety of applications, such as virtual tours, where color and detail fidelity is crucial for an immersive and informative experience. Thanks to the MS-96’s lighting system, the colorimetric details of the scanned environments are preserved, allowing for a more realistic and precise representation. This feature is particularly useful for documentation, analysis, and 3D modeling work, where color plays a crucial role in data interpretation.
Scanning at night with the MS-96 can provide several significant advantages. This first helps reduce visual pollution by avoiding distractions caused by the presence of people, vehicles and other daytime activities. Additionally, working at night allows operational flexibility, minimizing interruptions and increasing the efficiency of the scanning process, particularly useful in urban or industrial environments that are less active during the night. Sometimes, this constraint can even be imposed for the needs of a project. For example, to carry out measurements in road tunnels or underground metro stations. In these cases, it is already tiring enough for operators to carry out the mission without also having to carry heavy and bulky lighting equipment on site. In addition, the light system ensures the safety of operators by allowing them to operate in full visibility. No more headlamps!
