Category Archives: Lidar/Imaging

Vexcel: How a Camera Company Turned Itself into a Global Data Engine

From film scanners to hybrid camera-LiDAR systems and a 43-country data program, Vexcel’s CEO Alexander Wiechert described the journey leading to the current product line in a conversation with xyHt at INTERGEO in Frankfurt. Walking past the Vexcel booth at INTERGEO 2025, you see Merlin, Osprey 4.2, Condor and Dragon 4.2 front and center: sleek housings, crisp...

Fire Season Preparedness: GIS Powers Southern California Sheriff Departments’ Evacuations

The deadly Los Angeles wildfires that claimed 30 lives, destroyed 15,000 structures, and burned 37,000 acres in January 2025 forebode Southern California’s year-round risk. Rugged terrain, fierce winds, and prolonged drought have made more intense fire occurrence the new normal—and unified first responder coordination a matter of life and death. At least four million California residents live in...

Jack Dangermond’s Vision for the Future

The geospatial industry is moving through a period of profound transformation. Advances in reality capture, artificial intelligence, and cloud integration are converging with urgent global challenges, from climate resilience to urbanization. In this moment, few figures are as influential as Jack Dangermond, founder and CEO of Esri. For more than fifty years, he has guided...

Topcon 2.0: Reclaiming the Geomatics Frontier

For decades, Topcon has been a trusted name in precision optics, GNSS receivers, and machine control. Its equipment became a familiar sight on survey crews, construction sites, and agricultural fields across the globe. Over the past decade, the company leaned heavily into high-growth sectors such as machine control and precision agriculture, expanding its presence in...

How Lidar Is Helping Cattle Farmers Make Smarter Land Use Decisions

In the rolling hills and rugged terrain of Spain, a quiet revolution is underway, one that’s helping cattle farmers make better decisions about how they use their land. At the heart of it is lidar, a remote sensing technology that’s proving to be more than just a tool for mapping landscapes. It’s becoming a critical...

Oriented Imagery in GIS: Unlocking Value From Unstructured Data

In an era defined by explosive data growth and rapidly expanding drone-based sensing, the geospatial community faces a new frontier: unlocking the value of unstructured imagery. Chad Lopez, a solutions engineer with Esri’s Imagery and Remote Sensing team, is at the forefront of this effort. In a recent interview, Lopez discussed how oriented imagery—raw photos...