# LiDAR or ordinary cameras: accuracy is not what decides

> Laser scanning gives millimetres, a ceiling camera gives continuity. These are different jobs, and confusing them is expensive.

Source: https://naasson.com/en/blog/lidar-or-cameras/
Published: 2026-03-13
Language: en
Direction: Space by Naasson (https://naasson.com/en/space/)
Publisher: Naasson — https://naasson.com

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The first question on any site: scan with a laser or install cameras. People usually look for the answer in accuracy. What actually decides it is whether you need a snapshot or a stream.

## LiDAR: a snapshot in millimetres

Laser scanning produces millions of points. Industrial models work at ranges up to forty metres, with a 360-degree horizontal field of view, at ten frames per second.

The output is an interactive 3D model, delivered through a game engine or through 3D Gaussian Splatting. It suits virtual tours, staff training and planning changes to a space.

The key property: it is a snapshot on a date. You come, you scan, you get a model. A month later the model is out of date by exactly as much as the space has changed.

## Cameras: a stream without millimetres

Ordinary IP cameras on the ceiling give continuity. Computer vision analyses the video stream, builds a surface model of the bulk material and calculates its volume.

The error is two to five percent. For a crushed-stone stockpile that is acceptable. For accepting a building handover it is not.

The key property: the data updates constantly, with no site visit and no person involved.

## Why the choice is not about accuracy

Because the jobs are not comparable.

If you need to know how much sand is in the hopper today and how much was there yesterday, millimetres are useless. What matters is the trend, and only continuous measurement gives you that. A precise one-off measurement is worse here than an approximate constant one.

If you need to plan an equipment layout or train people on evacuation routes, continuity is useless. The space does not change every day, but missing a wall by ten centimetres will ruin the whole exercise.

## 3D Gaussian Splatting and why it is here

A relatively new way to produce photorealistic models. It is faster than classical methods and handles translucent and reflective surfaces better: glass, metal, water.

The property that matters in practice: the result loads quickly and runs smoothly even on weak devices. For a model that has to open on a phone on the shop floor, that is the deciding argument.

## A mixed setup

A real site usually needs both tools, and they do not compete.

Laser scanning, done once, gives the geometry of the space: where the walls are, where the columns are, where the hoppers are and how big they are. The cameras then work inside that known geometry and calculate how much material is in the hoppers.

The second works worse without the first. A system that does not know the hopper dimensions has to reconstruct them from the same video, and the error grows.

## What to ask before you start

Do you need an answer to "what is it like now" or to "how is it built".

The first is cameras, the second is laser. If the answer is "both", that is normal, and it is two stages, not one.