Topic: Clone Wars becloud LiDAR Points
Presenter : Martin Isenburg
Type: Oral
In this I will talk about the success of the open source LiDAR compressor LASzip (*.laz) that has become the de-facto industry standard for lossless compression of LAS files achieving ratios between 1:5 and 1:13. I will give a status report on current and future developments with the occasional anekdote sprinkled in.
But then comes 2014. Instead of embracing or bettering the existing technology a large GIS corporation from the \”Inland Empire\” two hours East of LA suddenly decides to blaze their own path (head first into a brick wall) developping the so called \”LAZ clone\” with near identical performance and features. We are currently in talks with said company to hopefully avoid a \”format war\” that will be fought on the backs of LiDAR users with the only winners being companies doing data conversion (such as FME).
I will end with a report on the latest from the frontlines and (maybe) with a battle strategy and a call to arms.
[note: this talk is a minor variation of my talk given at FOSS4G Europe 2014 in Bremen, Germany but the audiences seem sufficiently different]
