LiDAR annotation
In LiDAR annotation, people mark cars, pedestrians and other objects inside a laser scanner's point cloud with 3D boxes known as cuboids. Vendors charge for each cuboid, which makes a crowded city frame far dearer than an empty stretch of highway.
Estimate the cost of a LiDAR annotation job
75,000 cuboids overall, drawn as squares of 10,000 cuboids
That makes 75,000 cuboids across 3,000 LiDAR frames. What a team outside the US would charge, roughly:
$7,500 to $37,500
Teams abroad list between $0.10 and $0.50 for each cuboid.
Get quotes for this jobThe calculation behind this
The published low and high price for that label type gets multiplied by the label count. Another review adds 20 to 50 percent, while a US team costs two to four times the outside-US range.
Prices for lidar cuboids come from Habile Data.
Prices for bounding boxes come from Label Your Data for the low end and Habile Data for the high end.
Prices for video tracking come from Habile Data.
Prices for pixel masks come from Habile Data for the low end and GDS Online for the high end.
The frame matters more than the rate
Only a handful of cuboids cover a highway frame with a few cars on it. A busy city crossing may take dozens, so one price per cuboid works out near $0.48 for the first frame and $4.84 for the second.
Vendors listing this work
Audit names explained
- SOC 2 a check by an outside auditor of how a company protects its clients' files. Type I checks a single day; Type II checks several months, so it tells you more.
- ISO 27001 a worldwide data-safety standard; an independent auditor confirms the company follows it.
- ISO 9001 checks the steps a company uses to keep its work consistent. It does not cover keeping your files safe.
- HIPAA a US law that protects patients' medical records.
- TISAX a security check that car manufacturers ask their suppliers to pass.
- GDPR the EU's data protection law.
| Company | Based in | Kinds of files | Audits and laws it names | How it prices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scale AIscale.com | San Francisco, California | Photos, Video, Text, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Satellite and map images, Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2 Type II | Per project |
| Appenappen.com | Sydney, Australia and Kirkland, Washington | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Medical scans, Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR | Per project |
| TELUS Digitaltelusdigital.com | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | Photos, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2, TISAX, ISO 27001 | Per project |
| iMeritimerit.ai | San Jose, California | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Medical scans, Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, HIPAA, GDPR, TISAX | Per project |
| Samasama.com | San Francisco, California | Photos, Video, Text, 3D laser scans (LiDAR) | ISO 9001, ISO 27001, TISAX, GDPR | Per project |
| Label Your Datalabelyourdata.com | Wilmington, Delaware | Photos, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Satellite and map images | ISO 27001, GDPR | From $0.02 per box, or from $6 for each hour a labeler works; free trial job; no setup fees |
| Shaipshaip.com | New York, New York | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Medical scans, Rating AI chatbot answers | ISO 27001, ISO 9001, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA | Per project |
| Mindy Supportmindy-support.com | Limassol, Cyprus | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Rating AI chatbot answers | SOC 2, GDPR | Per project; teams start at about 5 people working full time on your files |
| Innodatainnodata.com | Ridgefield Park, New Jersey | Photos, Video, Text, Sound, 3D laser scans (LiDAR), Medical scans, Satellite and map images, Rating AI chatbot answers | ISO 9001, ISO 27001 | Per project |
| Keymakrkeymakr.com | New York, New York | Photos, Video, 3D laser scans (LiDAR) | ISO 9001, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA | Per project; a few labeled examples you can check first |
Most companies first look at a sample of your files, then give you one price for the whole job ("per project"). Fill in the short form one time and get prices back from three of them.
Common questions about LiDAR annotation
What does 3D point cloud annotation cost?
Teams abroad list $0.10 to $0.50 for each cuboid. A whole scene packed with objects can come to $5 to $25 a frame.
Which companies label LiDAR scans?
Ten vendors name this work on their own websites: Appen, Innodata, iMerit, Keymakr, Label Your Data, Mindy Support, Sama, Scale AI, Shaip and TELUS Digital. Look along any row of the vendor table for where that firm is based and how it charges.
Can I try a vendor out before I sign?
You can. Label Your Data runs a pilot at no charge, and Keymakr will label a sample batch that you check before the main work begins. With the rest, expect a short paid trial, and say in your brief that you want one.
Send one brief, hear from three vendors
Describe your data once and we pass it to three annotation vendors that label that kind of data, so you can compare quotes side by side.
- One short form instead of three sales calls
- Matched on data type, volume and security needs
- You choose who to talk to