Omniscan 3D Overview

Introducing Omniscan 3D, the latest addition to the Omniscan family of imaging sonars. It retains the same high resolution image quality of its Omniscan predecessors, plus it generates a full point cloud, and the Omniscan image is rendered on a mesh in its true 3D location rather than on a flat plane.

Omniscan 3D operates at 450 kHz and shares the same fan beam transducers as the corresponding Omniscan 450 products. In addition, Omniscan 3D incorporates a 16 channel receive-only transducer to calculate the vertical angle of each target. You might say it’s somewhere between an interferometric side scan and a multibeam echo sounder.

Full Point Cloud

With high resolution image data and slant range from the side scan transducer, plus target angle from the receive array, a full set of points is created along each ping, building a full point cloud data set as the scan progresses via rotation and/or translation.

High Resolution Image on True 3D Mesh

SonarView calculates a true 3D mesh representing the bottom profile, and renders the high resolution Omniscan image on this mesh at its true location in 3D space. In addition, structures within the water column such as the dock pilings and weed beds are rendered separately in a point cloud format as shown in the accompanying video and images.

Omniscan 3D is available now. Hardware is solid, and SonarView application is functional, but beta, so be prepared for frequent updates and steadily improving documentation.