I see your point. I glossed over their actual statement because I saw what they were getting at. What they should have said is something along the lines of:

“Nothing you are seeing is the result of conventional camera and lighting techniques. Instead, sensor information was recorded (in the case of structured light imaging, with a camera) and the data converted into three-dimensional information about the detected objects. This information was then reconstructed via computer to produce the virtual images used in the video.”

I think this is usually referred to as ‘indirect imaging’. I’m guessing that their techs were struggling to find a concise way to explain what exactly was being done…

Claiming that the “structured light” method is cameraless and lightless is even more baffling. It has freakin’ “light” in the freakin’ title! Furthermore a camera is used to capture the live images of the illuminated object. The product they used is actually titled “The GeoVideo Real-Time Motion Capture Camera”. Camera… see… right there at the end of the title.

Gaah!!!

Next time I run into Radiohead, I am totally going to smack them with my Ph.D.

So it seems to be! Thanks for the comment. I’m more familiar with RADAR application than LIDAR applications, and didn’t think to check the details. I’ve updated the post to fix the inaccuracy.

For those who might be interested, a LIDAR system will make several range measurements to the target vehicle. With the knowledge of the duration between measurements, one can calculated speed in the usual distance/time technique.

Of all places, Radio Shack has a nice pamphlet explaining the different methods of speed detection!

I do not think any of the LIDAR systems employed by law enforcement for the purpose above use the “doppler shift” of the light field to measure the targets speed.

Some systems using the “time of flight” method DO provide audio feedback to the operator using sounds that mimic the Doppler audio feedback that radar based speed enforcement equipment has provided for years, as the operators of police LIDAR are most often familiar with that, based on the use of radar devices for speed enforcement.