US Patent 9396545 Segmentation of ground-based laser scanning points from urban environment

A method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture provide object descriptors for objects in point cloud data for an urban environment by segmenting the point cloud data. Point cloud data for an urban environment is obtained using a ground-based laser scanner. Terrain points are filtered out from the point cloud data using ground filtering. The point cloud data is then segmented into two or more blocks. Objects that lie on neighboring adjacent blocks are combined. Object descriptors for the combined objects are then provided (e.g., to the user or a program used by the user).