LiDAR Accuracy: Reading the Giraffe360 Camera's Margin of Error

Giraffe360 puts the margin of error for its camera's LiDAR data generally below 1% for points 2 to 10 metres away, and says it can widen in a home with many reflective surfaces or when the camera is carried carelessly. Maximum precision can be reached but isn't guaranteed, so the figure is read together with two others: the alignment Scan View checks during the capture, and the scale of the floor plan file the measurements end up in.

Below 1% Between 2 and 10 Metres

The margin is a share of the distance measured. Below 1% means an error of less than 5 cm for a point 5 metres from the camera, and less than 10 cm at 10 metres. The Giraffe360 camera has a LiDAR scan range of 0.2 to 40 metres, but Giraffe360's Help Centre gives the margin only for the band from 2 to 10 metres and states no figure for points nearer or farther than that.

The camera's specification also lists about 1.5 million points per scan. That number describes density, how closely the points cover the surfaces a scan can see. How near each point lies to the real surface is what the margin of error describes, and for that Giraffe360 gives only the 1% figure.

According to the Help Centre, precision varies with the house and with how the scanning is done, and its examples are a lot of reflective surfaces and a camera carried carelessly. After the capture, the data is processed remotely by AI software and then goes through a final manual quality check based on the AI's suggestions. Giraffe360's own summary is that maximum precision can be achieved, but it isn't guaranteed.

Within 0.3 Metres and 25 Degrees

Scan View is the check the camera makes while you work, and its number concerns placement. Pressing Scan opens it, and once a scan is done, the camera works out its position by tracking and shows it on a real-time map of the floor, with a panorama preview for checking the scan's quality. If the position looks wrong, Realign Scan lets you drag the scan into place with gesture controls, using walls and furniture as guides, and Change location moves it to another floor. The Help Centre's ideal is within 0.3 metres and 25 degrees, and it says well-aligned scans improve the accuracy of processing and shorten the time a project takes to come back.

That 0.3 metres is a tolerance for a scan's place among the others, which processing goes on to use, while the 1% figure covers the distances measured within each scan. Reflective surfaces affect both. Besides widening the margin, mirrors and other reflective surfaces make scans harder to align, and so do large open or outdoor spaces, very small or empty rooms, sudden camera movement, and doors or objects moved while the capture is under way.

The map can't show the margin of any one point, or whether processing will be able to use every scan. A room is left off the floor plan if it was skipped, or if camera movement, extreme darkness or too few angles left its data incomplete. It then has no dimensions, its area can't be calculated, and the property's total is worked out without it.

That shows up after processing, in the Capture report tab of a project that supports it. The report gives the number of scans and, when it has them, the coverage and the time spent; it colours the parts of rooms that weren't scanned red and the partly scanned parts yellow, and notes whether Scan View was used. Its suggestions for individual scans, such as spacing between scans that was too wide in a larger room or a camera too close to a wall, are for the next capture, since a missing room can only be added by going back to scan it. A project that shows No capture report yet has no report for now, which says nothing about whether the capture passed.

Approximate on the Listing Image, Full Scale in the DXF

Each floor plan's sidebar says its measurements are approximate and not to scale, and that the plan is intended for illustration only. Giraffe360 explains the wording: the picture is tidied up for marketing and isn't a technical blueprint, while the dimensions and areas printed on it come from the LiDAR data. In the PNG, JPG and SVG files the walls are straightened to look better, so they aren't the drawing to take precise measurements from.

For that there is the DXF file, drawn as accurately as possible without the adjustments for appearance, at a scale of 1:1 with one unit equal to 1 cm by default. It suits work such as planning a remodel, holds no height information, and like the SVG comes as an add-on.

The total area depends on rules as well as on measuring. The area on Giraffe360 floor plans follows the Area calculation standard chosen on the Measurements card in Property data, and whether each room is included, and the product's guidance is to confirm the convention for the listing and never to pick a standard to raise the total. Giraffe360 says it can't guarantee its calculations match local requirements without the customer's input, and that users are responsible for compliance. In the US, ANSI Z765 sets no tolerance for two measurements of one house to differ, so a gap between a plan and an appraisal needs an explanation.