Mobile LiDAR / Point Cloud Veiwer

Just a quick post on something I found just in time for AGU, a mobile LiDAR / Point Cloud viewer app for Android (Google Play). I've been searching for an app like this since I started creating 3D datasets.


It works best with LAS files, which for Structure-from-Motion point cloud data you can export LAS files from CloudCompare. It seemed to have a problem with UTM coordinates (probably to a decimal precision cut off), but if you export the data in a "local" coordinate system it works beautifully. I also tried it on some OpenTopography LiDAR data and it works just fine.

AGU 2013

4D Monitoring of a River Restoration Project with Structure-from-Motion

James T. Dietrich, jdietric@uoregon.edu

University of Oregon, Department of Geography

Poster: EP43C-0865

  

DOWNLOAD

This is just a reduced resolution preview, please use the link above to download the full poster.

Geography Awareness Week

Just a few action shots from the stream table demonstration I helped with as part of the U of O's Geography Awareness Week. Thanks to Jessie for organizing and Sarah and Alanna for being co-demonstrators.

Kinect Field Mapping Trial

Just a quick demo of field mapping with a Microsoft Kinect. We set out to test the Kinect outdoors. Luckily, Scott Creek is under a wonderful canopy of Cascade forest, which was good for the Kinect's infrared depth sensor. Check out the video of collecting and processing the data in the field and below is an interactive 3D point cloud. We used Faro Scenect to collect and process the Kinect data. More to come on this later...

Converting DEMs to STL files for 3D printing

Ever since we got a 3D printer in the Geography Department at the University of Oregon, we've wanted to print out topographic models. Thingaverse user Markus Fussenegger (mfussi) has a nice compact Java program, Heightmap to STL, for converting height map images into STL files for 3D printing. Markus's program is available on Sourceforge through Thingaverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:15276).

This is just a quick tutorial on how I got his code up and running on my Windows 7 machine...

PyScripter for ArcGIS 10.2

This tutorial is for my GEOG 490 students. I hope others find use in it too.

PyScripter is another Python GUI (Graphical User Interface) similar to the ones we've been using in class (IDLE and PythonWin). PyScripter has several advantages over these other programs, mainly the ability to auto-complete ArcPy, which really speeds things up.

Cameras for SfM

Camera choice for SfM is important...but maybe more important is taking the right photos. Taking the right photos is the subject of an upcoming post, but for now we'll just focus on cameras. I'll go over the setups we have running and also talk about some of the pitfalls of certain cameras.

Helicopter Aerial Photography

Just finished collecting data for the last part of my dissertation (Hooray!!!). Just thought I'd share some of the results. The photos were processed with Agisoft Photoscan Pro and the orthophotos ended up with a resolution of 5cm (which is exactly what I wanted). Great first results and special thanks to Mark Croghan at the Bureau of Reclamation for the funding and Troy Woydziak at Baker Aircraft for his great piloting.

Kinect Software Links

Here is some of the software I've tried out for getting data out of a stock XBOX 360 Kinect. There is a ton of info out there on hacking the Kinect to do your bidding in terms of 3D scanning.
SCANECT
RGB Demo
SCENECT

All of these use the OpenNI drivers for the Kinect

Bonus...some academic lit. on using the connect as a sensor
by Ken Mankoff in Earth Surface Processes and Landforms

The Kinect: a low-cost, high-resolution, short-range 3D camera

- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/esp.3332/abstract

Updated SfM Software Links

My original post on SfM software is here.

There are a growing number of Structure-from-Motion (SfM) software packages out there, here are some of the ones that I've come in contact with. VisualSfM would be the place I would start...