Lidar uses precise lasers to produce digital, three-dimensional, representations of surfaces. A lidar sensor emits laser pulses and measures the time each pulse takes to bounce off a surface and return to the sensor. Each return is stored and becomes one of billions of data points used to create a digital visualization of the scanned target. Lidar sensors are incredibly mobile, and can be operated from handheld devices, vehicles, and aircraft to produce digital models that are rich in metadata.

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The versatility of these sensors and the accuracy of the results has allowed lidar to become integral to a variety of different industries. Digital models act as a snapshot of the real-world, and can inform construction projects, track environmental change, guide autonomous vehicles, reveal archeological wonders, and document infrastructure, among many other uses.