read_las_header

Reads in and displays the header information from a lidar data file in LAS format

The function read_las_header reads and displays the header information from a lidar data file in the American Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing (ASPRS) LAS format, as specified in the following document: "LAS Specification Version 1.2" ASPRS, April 29, 2008. If properly populated, the LAS header contains such information as the software used to generate the LAS file, the year and day the file was created, the sensor or process used to generate the data, the number of points per return (e.g., first, second, third pulse, etc.), the total number of points in the file, the min and max X,Y,Z coordinates, and other info needed to correctly read lidar points from the file. The function is backwards-compatible, with respect to the LAS version (i.e., header information from lidar files in LAS 1.0 and 1.1 formats should display fine).

The accompanying file, coordinate_sys.mat, is needed to display coordinate system information.

Input:
lasFilename: Path and filename of LAS file

Example of calling this function:
headerInfo = read_las_header('C:\my_lidar_file.las');

Output:
lasHeaderInfo: Up to 40x2 cell array containing all the info read in from the LAS file header. If coordinate system info is missing, then lasHeaderInfo will be a 36x2 cell array.

Chris Parrish