Geo-tagging videos and photographs
- Thread starter Bogdan
- Start date
Really!!!!! Is it true that the Q5004k produces still photos without Lon, Lat, and Alt. ?? NO Geotags in the exif files. We can't produce 3D plans/maps from all the different sources out there?
Please someone tell me it's not true.
Please someone tell me it's not true.
Any updates?
I'm a surveyor and bought the Typhoon H to help on large projects. Mostly TOPO maps. I got the drone on Wed June 29th and had a dense point cloud of a test property by Friday using VisualSFM. From there its a matter of creating a surface in meshLab. once I have the surface, I usually import to sketch up for the actual drawing on the contour lines. But at that point, I usually have a couple on control points with know elevations to paste to and scale from (if necessary)
If someone has a simpler work flow I'm open. This has just worked for me in my "Pre" Drone days
I'm a surveyor and bought the Typhoon H to help on large projects. Mostly TOPO maps. I got the drone on Wed June 29th and had a dense point cloud of a test property by Friday using VisualSFM. From there its a matter of creating a surface in meshLab. once I have the surface, I usually import to sketch up for the actual drawing on the contour lines. But at that point, I usually have a couple on control points with know elevations to paste to and scale from (if necessary)
If someone has a simpler work flow I'm open. This has just worked for me in my "Pre" Drone days
Greetings. I have been following this thread regarding geo-tagging stills taken by the Yuneec Typhoon 500, 500+, and G (I have a couple of each in my fleet). If everyone is still anxious to do this, then I have this resolved. I have been putting together and testing a 'work flow' to batch process my Typhoon imagery to geo-tag the images so they can be used in Pix4D. My process is not trivial, nor is it difficult, it simply uses a couple of intermediate steps to batch-process the Yuneec ST10 flight logs to generate a synthetic .GPX file, then uses the GPX file to geo-tag the images. two already-existing software applications are used for these steps, so the solution is readily available. I have completed several tests using a few dozen 16 MP images captured at 400 ft AGL with probably excessive over-lap. The images get correctly geo-tagged, and they become input to Pix4D Mapper just fine. I am completing my final test introducing some ground control points captured following the flight (using my android galaxy running Mobile Topographer).
If the Yuneec Typhoon Pilots want this, I have been carefully documenting my workflow, with screen captures, so everyone can learn how to do this and relax, confident that they CAN use the Typhoon for aerial mapping. But I gotta hear from people or I'll keep this in-house.
Michael 'Doc' Vogt
Locally, the relative placement and orientation information available through geo-tagging information improves the stitching of the individual images - the GPCs only geo-locate the images in their frame of reference, and geo-locate the final product in your coord system.
The performance of Pix4D is handicapped by several things, one of them is the exaggerated distortion of nadir images taken at the low altitudes forced on UASs operating in the US NAS. For us researchers, that altitude restriction can be relieved, but for routine mapping it becomes a problem, especially in areas with significant changes in terrain elevation compared to the altitude they operate at.
Yes..yes..yes. Michael....... I'm very interested in your solution. I almost pulled the trigger on another quad just for topo mapping.
Eddie Spagetti
I'm very interested as well, I have a process myself using VisualSFM and Meshlab, but I left that unfinished as I found a website http://mapsmadeeasy.com
Simple and cheap
Simple and cheap
For those who are new to www.mapsmadeeasy.com, they are what Pix4D 'used to' be. Back only a few years ago, Pix4D offered their software as a service, and while it wasnt cheap, it worked GREAT. Its unclear if they just got too many orders to continue as a service, or if they planned to release their software from the start, but I miss their service. I have also used www.mapsmadeeasy.com and find them very reliable and practical. I have not completed tests side-by-side of images with no geo-tags vs. same image set geo-tagged... but when I do this in Pix4D Mapper it improves the stitching and it extends the coverage further - something that suffers in www.mapsmadeeasy.com (the required image overlap leaves significant edge imagery un-usable). Both services produce good images in about the same turn-around time.
The reason I have worked out the work-flow for Typhoon->geo-tagged images->stitched/geolocated images is to be independent of Internet access. I do enough work in the field where monster upload if hi-res images isnt practical.
The reason I have worked out the work-flow for Typhoon->geo-tagged images->stitched/geolocated images is to be independent of Internet access. I do enough work in the field where monster upload if hi-res images isnt practical.
The edges on my first attempts using maps made easy are less than desirable, but I have yet to attempt a serious project using the recommended overlap. (Si far we've been using old school Surveying as I have completed my part 107 remit PIC process.
I asked about how geo located images as maps made easy allow for their use. They also recommend the use of ground control as the best solution. When I use that option, there is no need for geo located images, hence my original question.
What kind of money are we talking about for pix4d?
I asked about how geo located images as maps made easy allow for their use. They also recommend the use of ground control as the best solution. When I use that option, there is no need for geo located images, hence my original question.
What kind of money are we talking about for pix4d?
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Pix4D has been at this a LONG time, so they have some features that I dont see anywhere else - on in particular keeps my team interested - extracting frames directly from video. We fly in the upper midwest USA - and our weather isnt anything like what California has... here is it gusty, changing, and even dangerous... that makes shooting stills clumsy, but shooting video much more reliable. Our clients always ask for the video as the resolution isnt as important as the quality of the imagery (blur). being able to extract frames cleanly, and geo-tag the frames and stitch them into maps is valuable.
I am still working out ways to reproduce this in other less expensive software.
I am still working out ways to reproduce this in other less expensive software.
We've been Surveying in this area for a few years, before that my brother worked for a couple of engineering firms and I developed a couple of subdivisions. My dad was a builder and was a surveyor in this area since 1960's. So we are fairly well know in this area with contractors and engineers.
I said all that to say I don't see, even as connected as we are, enough business to justify that kind of expense.
I hope I'm wrong, but it is a new field and Arkansas tends to follow more than lead. Any other opinions?
I said all that to say I don't see, even as connected as we are, enough business to justify that kind of expense.
I hope I'm wrong, but it is a new field and Arkansas tends to follow more than lead. Any other opinions?
Pix4D is enjoying havinga great foothold in a new service industry... but I agree -their costs are steep 'if' you dont have customers paying for the service. I suspect that our small business utilizes services like Pix4D in a batch mode - we complete the field work for several clients, then prepare all of the map-making work and purchase Pix4D for a month at a time and get busy making maps. Pix4D had a demo product with reduced features that we use for same-day validation mapping - to get something to interested parties quickly, then generate a set of maps and reports in the couple of weeks that follow. Most clients need a comprehensive report - the interpretation and recommendations that go with that report. The imagery and models are of little use to the novice without such interpretations, and clients are patient when they get the detail they need... so in the end, Pix4D is a bargain.
That said, I know of at least 3 other services like mapsmadeeasy that are coming along at a quick pace and also generate very decent products... so this service industry (aerial surveying and mapping) will drop to competition-driven pricing soon enough, and will be affordable enough to open 'real' new markets (not so much hype). Ive been looking forward to that for many years.
DocV
That said, I know of at least 3 other services like mapsmadeeasy that are coming along at a quick pace and also generate very decent products... so this service industry (aerial surveying and mapping) will drop to competition-driven pricing soon enough, and will be affordable enough to open 'real' new markets (not so much hype). Ive been looking forward to that for many years.
DocV
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