Laser Design’s New Denoising Software

By DE Editors

Laser Design Inc. (Minneapolis,MN), 3D laser scanner supplier for more than 20 years, announced the upcoming release of its Laser Design Point Cloud Denoiser (3D) Software. Point Cloud Denoiser takes the scanning process of parts with reflective surfaces one step forward by reducing or eliminating the need to spray surface treatments, powders, paints, or finishes on parts with reflective surfaces because the noisy data is automatically removed by the Point Cloud Denoiser software after the scanning is completed. The software’s proprietary denoising algorithms leave the actual surface data intact.

Noisy data removal is critical to those industries that depend upon scanning technologies for reverse engineering, quality inspection, and object recognition applications such as automotive, aerospace, electronics, telecommunications,  medical device, consumer appliance, and tooling manufacturing.

Point Cloud DeNoiser automatically removes both long-range noise, i.e., outliers, and short-range noise. Features of the software include its ability to identify and delete discrete and clustered outliers without moving any of the input data points. The software’s algorithm can remove structured point data usually associated with reflections.

Another issue for data processing products for high density scanning applications is the amount of time it takes to clean up scan data. Eliminating excessive or minute noise in scan files can take more than 50 percent of the time spent on the entire data processing project. The Point Cloud DeNoiser automates the whole noise reduction process for 3D data from scanners that use industry-standard file formats.

Large-scale terrestrial scanning in less than perfect conditions typically results in scans with the most noise and errant flier data points. The DeNoiser can eliminate the interactive operator time required for data editing on any 3D scan data files including huge terrestrial laser scanning projects such as a building,  power plant interior, or land contours.

The Point Cloud DeNoiser eliminates the need for surface sprays that ultimately prevent parts from being adversely altered by the application of a messy surface spray. This renders laser scanning results for inspection applications more reliable, such as in the case of medical,  electronics components / circuit boards, clean room parts, machined metal surfaces, polished parts and many high finish, reflective materials that previously could not be scanned without surface sprays. For parts such as these, contamination is a real issue and some extremely reflective surfaces may still need surface preparation.

In comparison tests, competing software programs completely failed to automatically denoise many measured data models while the Point Cloud DeNoiser provided impressive outlier removal results without user interaction. The software handles both planar and arbitrarily curved surfaces equally well.

Laser Design is offering the Point Cloud DeNoiser to customers for $4995, including updates and support.

For details, contact Laser Design, Inc. at laserdesign.com.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.