You may have heard of Lidar surveys, an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging. It’s a remote sensing technology that measures distances by illuminating a target with a laser and analysing the light that is reflected back. The most common use of Lidar today is in self-driving vehicles and other robotic applications, where it provides high-resolution spatial data for navigation and object detection.
A frequent question about Lidar is, “Can LiDAR see through walls?”
Today we are going to answer this question.
Can Lidar See Through Walls?
The short answer is no, Lidar cannot see through walls, at least not in the way we typically think of ‘seeing’. Light, including the type used in Lidar systems, can’t pass through most solid materials like brick, concrete, or wood. Thus, it is unable to see what’s behind a wall in the same way that it can see what’s in front of it.
The reason for this is due to how light interacts with different materials. When light encounters a material, several things can happen. It can be reflected, absorbed, or transmitted.
Walls are generally designed to be opaque, meaning they absorb or reflect most of the light that hits them, allowing little or no light to pass through.
Wall Materials Affect On LiDAR
While Lidar can’t see through walls in the traditional sense, certain materials and specific situations might make it possible for Lidar to retrieve some information about what’s behind a barrier.
Interaction with Wooden Walls
Lidar struggles when it comes to penetrating wooden walls. The characteristics of wood make it highly reflective or absorbent to laser pulses, leading to a hindrance in the Lidar operation. When a Lidar system targets a wooden surface, the laser pulses are either reflected off the surface or absorbed into the material. Consequently, the laser light does not pass through the wooden structure, thus preventing the Lidar from acquiring accurate measurements or distance data.
Interaction with Concrete Walls
Similarly, Lidar cannot penetrate walls made of concrete. The structural composition of concrete, which includes a mixture of cement, gravel, sand, and water, makes it highly resistant to laser light penetration. When the Lidar system fires pulses at a concrete wall, the material either reflects or absorbs the pulses, preventing them from passing through. This characteristic of concrete inhibits the Lidar system’s ability to provide precise measurements, thereby limiting its effectiveness in environments with concrete structures.
Interaction with Brick Walls
Brick, a robust and dense material, also presents challenges to the Lidar system. Like wood and concrete, Lidar cannot penetrate brick walls. When a Lidar device encounters a brick wall, the laser pulses are either reflected or absorbed, stopping them from traveling through the wall. This behavior results in the Lidar device failing to collect accurate data or measurements related to the wall, limiting its effectiveness in environments where brick structures are common.
Interaction with Metal Walls
Metal walls present unique challenges to Lidar systems. Given the highly reflective nature of most metals, Lidar encounters difficulties when trying to penetrate metal walls. When the Lidar system fires laser pulses at a metal wall, the pulses are typically either reflected off the surface or absorbed into the material. This action results in inaccurate data or measurements, thereby limiting the effectiveness and accuracy of Lidar in environments with metal structures.
Interaction with Glass Walls
When it comes to glass, particularly clear glass, Lidar faces unique difficulties. The transparency of clear glass can often lead to the Lidar system failing to detect the surface altogether, resulting in missing or inaccurate data. On the other hand, textured glass or glass embedded with fibers can cause even more complexities. These types of glass create unpredictable patterns of reflection and absorption, leading to inaccuracies in distance measurement and overall data collection.
factors that affect lidar’s ability to penetrate walls
Several factors affect Lidar’s ability to penetrate walls, including:
Reflectivity
Imagine you’re bouncing a ball off different types of walls. Some walls bounce the ball back well because they’re hard and smooth, while others don’t because they’re soft and squishy. Lidar is similar. It uses laser beams (like the ball) and bounces them off different surfaces (like the walls). If the surface is very reflective, like a mirror, it might bounce the laser beam away, making it harder for Lidar to “see”.
Signal noise
This is like trying to listen to music in a noisy room. The louder the background noise, the harder it is to hear the song. For Lidar, “noise” can be anything that interferes with the laser signals it sends and receives. This could include other light sources, weather conditions like rain or dust, or even the electronics of the Lidar device itself.
Sensor quality
A better sensor is like having better eyesight. The sharper your vision, the more details you can see. For Lidar, a high-quality sensor can detect more details, making it easier to “see” through certain barriers.
Transparency
Lidar can struggle with clear materials, like glass, just as you might walk into a clean glass door because it’s hard to see. The laser might just pass right through without bouncing back. Textured or patterned glass can also cause problems, as it might scatter the laser in different directions.
Absorption
Some materials are like sponges, they absorb the laser signal, similar to a sponge soaking up water. If a wall absorbs the laser light, less light bounces back to the Lidar sensor, making it harder for Lidar to “see” the wall.
In short, Lidar’s ability to “see” through walls depends on how well the laser beams can bounce back from the walls to the sensor, which in turn is affected by the wall’s reflectiveness, the quality of the Lidar sensor, any interference (“noise”) with the signal, and whether the wall is transparent or absorbs the laser light.
Signal Noise Affects On LiDAR Seeing Through Walls
Lidar’s ability to penetrate walls is significantly affected by signal noise, just as it is with other applications. Although Lidar can’t traditionally penetrate solid walls, signal noise still plays a significant role in its overall performance.
Here’s a simple table that explains how different signal noise reduction techniques could potentially impact Lidar’s performance when it comes to detecting walls or objects behind walls:
| Noise Reduction Technique | How It Could Improve Lidar’s Performance |
|---|---|
| Modulation Techniques | By modulating the laser signal, we can potentially reduce the signal noise, which may help Lidar better differentiate between a wall and the space behind it. |
| Increasing the Path Length | By causing the light to bounce back and forth many times within a cavity, we can potentially increase the Lidar system’s sensitivity, improving its chances of detecting objects behind semi-transparent walls. |
| Oversampling | By taking multiple samples and averaging them, we can improve the signal-to-noise ratio. This might help Lidar to ‘see’ better and detect subtle differences, such as a change in material that could indicate a wall or barrier. |
| Dithering Noise | Adding dithering noise allows oversampling to work better, improving measurement resolution. In practice, this could mean being able to more accurately discern the presence of a wall or object. |
| Noise Reduction Techniques | Techniques such as filters can be used to clean up the signal, reducing noise. This could improve the clarity of the Lidar image, making it easier to identify walls or other barriers. |
Bear in mind, despite these techniques, the ability of Lidar to penetrate walls remains fundamentally limited by the physical properties of the walls themselves, such as their material, reflectivity, and absorption characteristics. While these techniques may improve Lidar’s performance, they cannot entirely overcome these physical limitations.
Conclusion
While it would certainly be interesting if Lidar could see through walls, current technology does not permit this feat in the traditional sense. Lidar provides remarkable three-dimensional imaging capabilities, but its ability to ‘see’ is constrained by the same basic physical laws that govern light. It can’t see through most solid, opaque materials like walls.
However, as science and technology advance, we might see new techniques that push the boundaries of what’s possible with Lidar. As always, it’s a fascinating time to watch this space.
