Depth

The depth map is a video representing the distance of the surfaces.

A value of 0 (black) means that the surface is at 0 m, whereas a value of 1 (white) represents 10m. Currently, the maximum value is 5 meters, which is the LiDAR’s range.

Confidence

The Confidence map represents the level of confidence for the depth values.

Level of confidence by color:

Blue: High Green: Medium Red: Low

This allows, for example, to use the blue channel as a mask to isolate only the depth values with a high level of confidence.

How to use?

One of the advantages of having a depth map is that it gives the position in space for things that can’t be captured during the scan process. For example if you film a moving object / character, you’ll be able to know their position in space using the depth map.

In Nuke, you can use the DepthToPoints node to get a point cloud from the depth images and camera.

Important

Please note that you will need to multiply the depth by 10 so it matches the scale of the scan.