Can a video camera be used for photogrammetry (the science of extracting 3d measurements, models and scans from photos)? The answer now is ‘yes’. In the past there were two issues with using video cameras for photogrammetry: Photogrammetry packages work with still photographs, not moving video files. Video cameras had low resolution. The latter issue […]
Introduction The GoPro Hero 3 is a small, lightweight, robust, low cost, and high definition video and still camera used primarily for capturing action. The GoPro Hero 3 Black is one of the recent high resolution versions of the GoPro lineup that can be used for photogrammetry – the science of measurement, modeling and […]
A short and sweet tip this week. Manually marked points on photos can be moved by selecting them with the mouse and dragging them. They can also be fine adjusted using the keyboard’s arrow keys. Marks on photos in PhotoModeler (such as point marks, line end marks, cylinder marks, surface draw marks, etc.) are used […]
There are a number of applications where you want to overlay an existing 3D model onto a photograph. The technical term is ‘3D Projection’. Projection allows you to see the 3D model overlaid on the photograph in the correct orientation and taking into account perspective. This tip video demonstrates the projection technique using photogrammetry in […]
Car accidents are an ordeal for everyone. They’re traumatic for the people involved, of course, but they also affect everyone else on the road. The more serious the incident, the more likely that multiple lanes will be blocked, and the longer it will take to get it cleared. The police officers at the scene have […]
An orthophoto is ‘flattened’ photo – an orthographic projection (perspective distortions removed) of photographic data. Orthophotos can be useful in certain applications because they act like maps or drawings – that is, you can do measurement on them (distance and angle). For PhotoModeler to create an orthophoto, it needs to know the shape of the […]
Sketchfab is an exciting new service for presenting 3D model data on the web. PhotoModeler can export files compatible with Sketchfab. This blog post describes the steps to export a 3d model from PhotoModeler and load it into Sketchfab. Before we show the steps, we have uploaded some PhotoModeler samples into Sketchfab. (Note you will need […]
This tip deals with point IDs (identifier numbers) and why and how to change them. An ID is a unique integer number that all objects (points, lines, curves, surfaces, meshes, camera stations, etc.) get assigned automatically by PhotoModeler. Note, IDs are unique within an object type (all point IDs are unique) but are not across […]
Photogrammetry is the science of using photographs to obtain measurements and models of real-world objects and scenes. Photogrammetric techniques involve using known information to help solve other, previously unknown information. Several critical pieces of known information concern the camera used to capture the photographs, and defining those pieces in mathematical terms known as camera parameters. […]
A photogrammetry project typically needs an external scale. With photogrammetric measurement and modeling, the scale is not known until specified. For example, the photogrammetry program does not know if you are inputing photos of a small toy car, or of a full size car. The two cases where one does not define a scale are: […]