Afternoon seminar organised by the Bristol VR Lab; a partnership between UWE, UOB, Watershed & Opposable Group. This talk was based around the subject of Photogrammetry - defined as “the science of making measurements from photographs. The input to photogrammetry is photographs, and the output is typically a map, a drawing, a measurement, or a 3D model of some real-world object or scene” (photogammetry.com). The speakers included Dr Lyndon Hill, from Rovco, a sea bed hydrographic surveying company and Claudia Ruiz Graham from Imaged Reality, a company that produces VR software for geological surveys in the Oil & Gas sector.
Dr Lyndon Hill cited the need for the production of fast, live and accurate 3D models for precise measurements from computer vision technology and showcased a steroscopic camera system that they had developed for use alongside the sub sea ROV’s. He presented some tips for undertaking underwater computer vision; photogrammetry - including noting good features, overlapping imagery & setting camera posiitons; and made recommendations of open source software including COLMAP, Mesh Lab & Cloud Compare, along with discussing point cloud techonlogies such as SLAM & LIDAR.
Claudia discussed the benefits of creating a VR solution to reduce the need for expensive geological field studies and demonstrated some of the high resoltuion imagery that had been created with drone cameras and photogrammetry techinques. The output produced is a full immersive VR solution that enables the geologist to mark and interpret the data from a virtual field trip. The benefits of this immersive approach include enhancing the real world experience, the ability to fly and experience real scale, a higher speed of learning, safe access to hazardous areas, cost effective and collaborative.
Imagery from websearches (www.bristolvrlab.com, www.rovco.com, www.imagedreality.com) & photography taken during the event
