Lidar technology is primed to play a key role in smart city applications, including traffic monitoring, surveillance and perimeter security, and more.

That was the focus of a story called “Smart Cities – Is Lidar Making Them Smarter?” by Sabbir Rangwala in Forbes.

Sabbir’s story includes comments by Jon Barad, our Vice President of Business Development. Jon highlighted some reasons why lidar sensors will be an integral component for smart city applications. These include:

• Privacy because lidar sensors do not identify individuals’ facial characteristics, an important privacy factor for civic applications.
• Coverage, where surround view lidar can cover a large range and field of view as compared to cameras.
• Ability to deliver 3D Information and maintain situational awareness of changing infrastructure.

The article discusses our Intelligent Infrastructure Solution as a smart city application for traffic monitoring.

Sabbir quotes Andreas Boehm, Manager, Intelligent City at the City of Kelowna, B.C., Canada, which is an Intelligent Infrastructure Solution customer, saying:

“We find that lidar has provided us with consistent data that we previously did not have – especially in low light and bad weather conditions. This is proving to be a great tool as we proceed forward.”

The article concludes by noting, “it is clear that lidar imaging is penetrating various applications…over time, smart cities are likely to get smarter and better focused on real customer needs of safety, convenience, security and economics.”