People are coming up with different technologies all with the aim of easing the whole human operation speed. Today the LIDAR and the LASER technology have become a go for and many people are talking about the opportunities that these technologies are offering and the ones they will offer in the future.
With the definition of the two technologies, it’s very easy to think that the two technologies are the same thing. Though, there exist a couple of differences between them. Though before we get to that extent, you, first of all, know what we are talking about.
A laser is not specifically a thing; it’s a device that uses laser technology to emit light through a process that is widely known as optical amplification. The functionality of such a technology is also widely known with many applications being on the drilling area and the medical area.
Lidar is a method that is specifically used for surveying services. It actually measures the distance to a predetermined target. This is actually facilitated by its ability to illuminate the target with laser light. This shows that there’s a relationship between the LASER and LIDAR Technologies. LIDAR Technology uses Laser technology to facilitate the results.
LIDAR vs. Laser
1. Definition-A laser is a device that crops a monochromatic intelligible beam of light while a LIDAR uses penetrating pulses of laser light to facilitate the process of measuring the arrangement and structure of the atmosphere. This is a huge difference between the two.
2. They are both acronyms-The The two works are acronyms which means they closely address the same thing. They all address Light amplification by stimulated emission of Radiation and Light Detection and Ranging. In this case, LIDAR often uses lasers simply because they can go a long distance and eventually reflect.
3. LIDAR is like a SONAR technique-LADAR bounces a probe beam off the target. In this case, the propagation time of the echo is actually the distance between it and the target. This is actually what facilitates the process of drawing a map of distance between the LIDAR and the target.
4. The laser is a device but the LIDAR is a technique or a process. This is another difference between the two. A LASER is a device to emit coherent radiation while LIDAR is the technique of doing so.
5. LIDAR is a utilization of a LASER beam-This is what facilitates the whole process of detection analysis and tracking purposes. This is a difference that most of the people cannot see or easily notice.
6. LIDAR Utilizes LASER Technology and vice versa are not true-as said here, LIDAR utilizes the LASER Technology but LASER doesn’t utilize LIDAR. This is easy because as I had already stated, LIDAR is a technique and not a device.
7. Uses-A LIDAR is a directed beam that is used to measure and ascertain speed. This means that a LIDAR beam is a more focused beam while the laser scanner is used to illuminate a large area. This is a clear difference between Laser illuminates a larger area while the LIDAR illuminates a very specific target.
8. LASER can report information on multiple targets while LIDAR cannot– as stated above, a LIDAR will always target a specific target while the LASAR will target a broader area. This means that LIDAR will only report information about a specific target. On the other hand, a LASER will have a broader target and hence will report information about different targets.
9. They have different uses-The The two technologies may seem alike but they all have different uses. As a matter of fact, a LIDAR is used to establish atmospheric constituents, solid objects, the distance of objects and many other things. The use of LIDAR technology is increasing rapidly and we expect in the future, there will be more uses. The reason behind this is because scientists are finding more ways of using LIDAR technology. On the other hand, Laser technology is used in a couple of ways. The first and the main users are in surgical procedures including the LASIK eye surgery. They are also used for cutting, drilling and making several materials.
10. Age-The two technologies were not born at the same time. LIDAR technology is at least 30 years old. It came to practice in the early 90s and for these reasons, more and more applications are being brought to the table. On the other hand, Laser technology came into place in the 60s. Robert N. Hall was the first person to come up with a close representation of what today we call Laser technology.