EmbliCats LiDAR Lab exercises

This repository contains the exercises for the EmbliCats LiDAR Lab.

Setup

git clone https://github.com/emblica/lidar-lab-exercises.git
cd lidar-lab-exercises

After that you can go to the exercise notebooks, starting with 00_getting_started.ipynb. Some quick start information below as well.

LiDAR Workshop Clients

Workshop attendees can visualize live LiDAR point clouds using two different client options. All connect via WebSocket (no ZMQ installation required).

Option 1: Web Viewer (No Installation Required!)

Simplest option: Just open the web/viewer.html file in your browser, and fill in IP, PORT and TOKEN provided by your workshop host.

Controls:

• Left Mouse: Rotate view
• Right Mouse: Pan view
• Scroll Wheel: Zoom in/out
• Color Mode: Choose how points are colored
• Point Size: Adjust point size

Option 2: Custom Python Client (Requires Python and other Package installations)

For attendees who want to process data programmatically. Setup your environment first!

NOTE: This project targets Python 3.11 or 3.12.

Option A: With uv (recommended):

uv sync

If that fails due to python version being >3.12, try this first:

uv python pin 3.12 # or 3.11

Option B: With pyenv, venv, global environments etc. using pip:

Activate your environment first! Then install requirements with:

pip install -r requirements.txt

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Usage:

# Basic connection (no visualization)
uv run scripts/exercise_client.py --server ws://INSTRUCTOR_IP:PORT --token INSTRUCTOR_TOKEN

# With Rerun visualization (recommended - best quality)
uv run scripts/exercise_client.py --server ws://INSTRUCTOR_IP:PORT --token INSTRUCTOR_TOKEN --rerun

# With matplotlib visualization
uv run scripts/exercise_client.py --server ws://INSTRUCTOR_IP:PORT --token INSTRUCTOR_TOKEN --visualize

# Save data to file
uv run scripts/exercise_client.py --server ws://INSTRUCTOR_IP:PORT --token INSTRUCTOR_TOKEN --save FILENAME.npz
  
# Offline playback from saved file (Rerun)
uv run scripts/exercise_client.py --play FILENAME.npz --rerun

# Offline playback (matplotlib) at 15 FPS
uv run scripts/exercise_client.py --play FILENAME.npz --visualize --fps 15

NOTE: If you are not using uv, just run as python instead of uv run :

python scripts/exercise_client.py ...

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Troubleshooting

Connection refused:

• Verify the server URL and port (e.g. ws://INSTRUCTOR_IP:PORT)
• Check firewall settings

Authentication failed:

• Verify the token matches the server configuration
• Check that you're sending the token as the first message

Visualization issues:

• If you turned off rerun on window in the notebook, you need to restart the kernel and run the notebook again.
• Web: Check browser console for JavaScript errors