Emesent Aura Glossary

Constellation

A collection of targets and landmarks, and the way they sit in relation to each other. A constellation is associated with the point cloud but is separate from it.

EDL

Eye dome lighting. Improves depth perception by shading the outline of points, accentuating the shape of each object.

File formats

• LAS: contains the point cloud. Industry-standard file format for LiDAR data.

• LAZ: a compressed LAS file.

• E57: a compact file format used for point cloud storage. Only E57 files generated by Aura are supported.

• SLAZ: a streaming LAZ file. Instead of loading the entire point cloud, Aura streams only the portion currently in view, discarding the rest. This optimised approach means faster loading times than standard LAZ datasets.

• XYZ: a widely supported point cloud format. In Aura, XYZ files appear in the Entity panel as a trajectory point cloud showing Hovermap's path.

• PLY: standard mesh file format.

• YAML: a configuration file attached to a LAS file. In Aura, a YAML file is the constellation of GCPs. The file superimposes targets over the point cloud. The default name is constellation.yaml.

GCPs

Ground control points. GCPs are points with known geographical coordinates.

Intensity

Measures how much of the emitted laser signal is returned. Intensity is based mostly on the reflectivity of the object struck by the laser, but can also be affected by other factors such as scan angle, surface composition, roughness, and moisture content.

Landmark

The GPS coordinates entered in the CSV file, referred to as landmarks in Aura.

Licence

A licence grants permission to use Aura's processing features. Each licence includes one or more modules, which enable specific functionality such as SLAM processing or RTK corrections.

Mesh

A 3D model consisting of vertices, faces, and edges.

Module

Modules are specific functional components within Aura. Licences may include access to one or more modules.

Point cloud

A collection of individual points plotted in a 3D space.

Scalar field

Scalar fields give a single, measurable value for each point in a point cloud. Because each value is associated with one point, the point cloud can be displayed using a colour gradient based on these values. Scalar fields also enable filters to be applied to the point cloud.

Seat

A single unit of access to Aura's processing capabilities. Seats can be shared by multiple users within an organisation but can only be used by one user at a time.

SLAM

Simultaneous localisation and mapping. SLAM technology runs in real time to allow Hovermap to create a map of its environment while simultaneously working out its position, orientation, and speed within that environment.

Target

The reflective disc aligned to a GPS coordinate.

Transform

Records the orientation differences between point clouds after a manual alignment. Aura works in the background to record this automatically. The transform then tells the processing job how to align the scans properly.

Translate

To move or shift the point cloud along an axis.

Units

All units in Aura are in metres.

SLAM

Enables SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) processing.

RTK

Allows integration of RTK GNSS data for improved georeferencing.

GCP

Enables georeferencing using Ground Control Points.

Merge

Allows merging of multiple scans into a single aligned point cloud.

Colorize

Adds colour information to point clouds using captured imagery.

Extract 360 Images

Extracts 360° images along the trajectory path.

Convergence Monitoring

Enables tools for assessing alignment accuracy across multiple scans.