In Polly Cove, just outside of West Dover, Nova Scotia there is a granite boulder with a petroglyph carving of a pattern similar to a Celtic swirl. The carving is located near the top of the hill to the left of the old foundation.
I thought it would be interesting to make a 3D reconstruction of the petroglyph carving using image analysis software. The software works by comparing parallax (change in viewpoint) from a series of images and generates a series of 3D points. In order to use the Bundler SfM photogrammetry software I took a series of 10 photos of the double spiral pattern. To improve the accuracy of the experiment I used a slide bar to shift the camera by 1 centimeter for each photo.
There is a double spiral petroglyph on a granite boulder in Polly Cove.
The petroglyph is located near the top of the rock.
These are two anaglyph formatted vertical aerial photos of Privateers Island, West Dover, Nova Scotia. The photos were taken on March 28, 2012 during an EasyStar model airplane flight over the island. Red / Cyan 3D glasses are required to view the images.
This is a stereoscopic 3D anaglyph image of the southern tip of Privateers Island.
This is a stereoscopic 3D anaglyph image of the forest cleanup on Privateers Island after major hurricane damage.
While exploring Privateer's Island the EasyStar plane also did a pass over the East Dover Barrens.
This is a stereoscopic phantogram conversion of Vincent van Gogh’s painting "Vase With Twelve Sunflowers". It should be viewed with Red / Cyan anaglyph 3D glasses at a 45 degree angle.
This computer generated image was created in Autodesk Maya using a technique called camera projection. I started by creating 3D geometry that approximated the shape of each element in Vincent van Gogh's painting. Then each object in the painting was extracted using rotoscoping into separate 2D texture maps. The textures were then projection mapped onto the 3D geometry. A stereo camera rig was used in Maya to render the left and right image pairs. I processed the left and right images using Apple Shake, Adobe Photoshop and StereoPhotoMaker. I used SPM to colour correct the anaglyph image to reduce colour ghosting.
These are Stereoscopic 3D Phantogram images. They should be viewed with Red / Cyan Anaglyph 3D glasses. The images are designed to be viewed on a device like a tablet computer where the screen is set flat on a table and the viewer is looking down at the screen at a 45 degree angle. You can click to enlarge the images.
Chess Board
This is a stereoscopic phantogram image of a chess match. The chess board photos were captured using a 6cm stereo base with a Canon D60 DSLR Camera on a Jasper Engineering slide bar. I processed the image pairs in Adobe Photoshop and StereoPhotoMaker.
Canon D60 Camera
This is a stereoscopic phantogram image of a Canon D60 camera resting on a grassy lawn. The photos were captured using a Canon Powershot SD780IS camera on a Jasper Engineering slide bar. I processed the image pairs in Adobe Photoshop and StereoPhotoMaker.
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.
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