Since February 2009 I have written up 222 blog posts on AndrewHazelden.com covering topics I am enthusiastic about. I thought it would be an interesting change for my readers to start a new section where I interview people who inspire me with their creative ideas and use of cutting edge technology.
Since I have a passion for model aviation and aerial photography my first guest is Jon-Pierre Stoermer. Jon-Pierre is the creative force behind Dronemapper a new on-demand SaaS software-as-a-service offering for the UAV Industry. I would like to thank Jon-Pierre for being willing to let me interview him about the Dronemapper project even though it is still in Beta.
Dronemapper.com provides a set of mapping tools for UAV Pilots.
I discovered the Dronemapper website while I was looking for an easy way to extract 3D terrain models from aerial images. I have had a chance to be in the Dronemapper beta program since March 2012 and I and have enjoyed using the innovative cloud based service.
Dronemapper works with any computer that has high-speed internet access and a web browser. You start by uploading your aerial images and flight log using your browser. Then the Dronemapper system automatically processes the data and sends you an email to let you know when your imagery is ready.
Uploading Images to Dronemapper
Dronemapper can create extraordinarily detailed 3D terrain reconstructions from a set of aerial photos. This image is a textured 3D point cloud with over 19.4 million vertices.
Meshlab is a great program for loading and editing XYZ point cloud data and creating polygon meshes. It also does a good job as a 3D file format converter.
After you start using Meshlab for a while you will typically use the same filter settings over and over again for every project. Meshlab allows you to automate your workflow by creating your own Meshlab .MLX filter scripts. These filter scripts are in XML format and can be run from the Meshlab GUI or from the command line version of Meshlab called meshlabserver.
I discovered Meshlab when I started processing aerial images with Bundler / PMVS and needed an opensource program to edit Stanford Triangle Format .PLY files. Each time I ran a set of aerial images through Bundler I wanted to create a new polygon mesh from the ASCII PLY file. It can become tedious after a while applying the same Meshlab filters over and over again so I started exploring the world of Meshlab MLX filter scripts.
This blog post is probably one of the most hyperniche topics I have written about. If you are using Meshlab, or Meshlabserver along with SFM programs like Bundler I would really like to hear from you about your projects and experiences.
This is a 1080p High Definition timelapse sequence of winter in the West Dover Barrens. The footage was filmed from January to March 2012. Most of the footage was captured using a Peleng 8mm fisheye lens on a Canon D60 with a TC-80N3 intervalometer.
The soundtrack is Merry Synthmas by Roger Subirana Mata.
This is a photo of me holding a ready-to-launch EasyStar model airplane. The plane is fully loaded with camera gear and has a total weight of 1.3kg.
On March 21, 2012 my brother and I flew our model EasyStar airplane over Privateers Island in West Dover, Nova Scotia. The plane carried a Canon PowerShot SD780IS digital camera, a Garmin eTrex Legend GPS, and a wireless video camera.
We launched several flights that day starting around 11am in the morning. This is the first year that I can remember wearing a t-shirt and getting a sunburn in March!
During the vertical aerial photo flight we took several hundred photos. The main thing we noticed when we reviewed the aerial photos of Privateers Island was evidence of significant hurricane damage in the forest. There are large areas in the forest canopy that are now open clearings with a lot of fallen trees.
A vertical aerial photo of the launch site.
The hurricane damage is really visible on the southern part of Privateers Island.
Here is an HDR image I captured on March 19, 2012 of the last sunset of winter in West Dover, Nova Scotia, Canada. I shot the image handheld using CHDK on my Canon Powershot SD780IS camera and created the HDR in Photoshop.
The weather has been much warmer this March than I have ever experienced. Some years we still have a foot of snow on the ground and ice on the lakes!
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