Faysal Bibi and colleagues recently published a paper on a fossil trackway site in Abu Dhabi. They found early evidence for modern social structure among ancient "elephants". I was one of the co-authors and using kite aerial photography and structure from motion photogrammetry, I helped record the site. Most of the aerial photography and image processing are discussed in the supplementary materials. The image was processed using Agisoft PhotoScan Pro. A copy of the mosaic is hosted at Gigapan and embedded below.

AutoDesk provides the free tool 123D Catch that permits photo textured 3D reconstructions based on structure from motion. The 3D model is created from a model of Saywite (or Sayhuite) from a reconstruction that is located at the Museo de la Nacion, Lima, Peru. The photographs were captured with a Sony NEX-5 and 28mm lens. The model was created using 123D Catch. The animation was generated using the generic keyframe option.

This video illustrates the steps involved in generating a scaled 3D model from a set of photographs. All of the software involved is free.

Generating image collections for building structure from motion models is simple and inexpensive. These are two obvious appeals of the method for field recording. However, processing SfM models can require considerable computing power. That can make the method relatively inaccessible for some. In addition, once a model is generated it can be very difficult to share the model with others over the web. Screen shots generally do not do justice to a model. In theory embedding a 3D model in a PDF is appealing and elegant. Yet, in practice, I find it does not work very well. Often times the PDF is too large and it can produce what I call "a browser bomb".

Hypr3D offers some interesting solutions to both the high computing overhead and the difficulty sharing models online. Much like the Automatic Reconstruction Conduit (ARC3D), Hypr3D is an online cloud based service. In other words, the computing is done server side rather than client side. That's nice for people who can't afford fast computers with lots of RAM. Hypr3D also offers a very nice interface for displaying 3D models on the web. While I find that Hypr3D does not produce models that are as sharp as Agisoft PhotoScan, the advantages of server side processing and online model sharing are very nice features. Best of all, an image collection that is suitable for PhotoScan, will also solve in Hypr3D. Below is a model that is based on images that were collected for processing with PhotoScan and reprocessed using Hypr3D.

Mark Willis comes up with another awesome application of photogrammetry to rock art studies.

Follow this link to the entry on his blog.

Go Matsumoto, a graduate student at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale posted his MA thesis on Academia.edu. The work is entitled, "Pachacamac GIS Project: A Practical Application of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing Techniques in Andean Archaeology". This thesis is a wonderful case example that incorporates the use of archival maps and new data to produce an outstanding GIS of the site of Pachacamac, Luirn Valley, Peru. Click on the title above or click here to download or read this thesis.

This post has two aims: 1) share a fantastic new resource of images and 2) highlight the work of Marilyn Bridges. Yale Digital Commons has an enormous collections of images online. There is a great deal of interesting information to discover. One example is the work of aerial photographer Marilyn Bridges.

If you are interested in scale and pattern, this video is wonderful food for thought.

From the creator's YouTube post:

"The final magnification is 2.1x10^275 (or 2^915). I believe that this is the deepest zoom animation of the Mandelbrot set produced to date (January 2010). Each frame was individually rendered at 640x480 resolution and strung together at 30 frames per second. No frame interpolation was used. All images were lovingly rendered by 12 CPU cores running 24/7 for 6 months."

A very interesting talk on early aerial archaeology in the United States.

Artifacts and Ancient Places: Aero-Archaeology in the Illinois Country

Alan Harn, Assistant Curator of Anthropology at Dickson Mounds Museum, will present Artifacts and Ancient Places: Aero-Archaeology in the Illinois Country.  The presentation is part of the monthly meeting of the Illinois Valley Archaeological Society, which is open to the public.

Archaeologists have long employed a variety of innovative techniques to better analyze and understand the lifeways of Illinois’ earliest inhabitants.  In the spring of 1922, two air force pilots flying over the ancient metropolis of Cahokia, near the present East St. Louis, shot the first successful aerial photographs ever made of an American archaeological site.  More than three decades would pass before other archaeologists began to build on this early record, this time focusing on sites in the Central Illinois River Valley.  Using early aerial photographs made by the United States Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service in concert with their own reconnaissance flights, researchers are both discovering new archaeological locations and productively reexamining a variety of known prehistoric sites.  Dramatic aerial vistas presented in this program by Dickson Mounds Museum archaeologist Alan Harn feature lost mounds, village plans, houses, temples, fortifications, and other underground features that provide graphic evidence of early life and land use in prehistoric Illinois.
 
IVAS programs are free of charge and the public is welcome.  For more information call 309.547.3721.

This post illustrates the use of a simple KAP rig in conjunction with structure from motion photogrammetry to generate a dense surface model of a threatened archaeological site.

3D Scanning on a Budget

This post displays a 3D model of one of the sunken plazas from the site of Pukara, Puno, Peru. During July, 2009 I was visiting excavations by my colleague Liz Klarich (Smith) and using the opportunity to practice photogrammetry on large architecture that had been previously reconstructed. The sunken plaza shown was excavated and reconstructed in the 1970's under Plan COPESCO. In the past, I had collaborated with Liz on aspects of mapping the site of Pukara. The sunken plaza has always captured my interest. This model was the first large architectural feature I attempted to record using photogrammetry. The uneven surface of the ichu grass presented some challenges, but these were overcome by aggressive decimation of the surface. The model was generated with PhotoScan and is displayed on this website as a PDF. The file is large, it may take a moment to download, and may strain computers with low RAM.

This post displays a 3D model of a pithouse at the site of Jiskairumoko, Rio Ilave, Peru. The excavations were performed in 2000. The model was generated with PhotoScan and is displayed on this website as a PDF. The file is large, it may take a moment to download, and may strain computers with low RAM. The model was generated as an experiment to see if 3D reconstructions can be created from archival excavation photos. This proof of concept demonstrates that such reconstructions are possible. 

Over at the PublicLaboratory, they have come up with a nice simple and inexpensive telemetry kit for balloon aerial photography (BAP). The information the unit collects should help with image georeferencing. I suspect that the data could potentially be exploited by applications like Palentier that was written by Mark Willis and M. Stange.

Research KAPers don't have the luxury of flying where the conditions are optimal. We work where the subjects are located and then we have to be creative about "making it work". Some locations just aren't suitable for KAP. In these cases, it is probably best to turn to BAP, PAP, or RC. However, understanding wind can really help the conditions under which a KAPer can be successful. Heritage documentation expert and KAPer extraordinaire Bill Blake has one of the best discussions of wind for KAP that I have seen thus far.

Archaeologist and elite low elevation aerial photographer Mark Willis recently posted a wonderful and informative tutorial on how to create a DEM from a Photosynth Point cloud. The photographs used in his tutorial example were captured by KAP, and the site is Palmitopamba in Ecuador. KAP is probably the most inexpensive LEAP technique, so this was a great proof of concept. Mark also strove to use free and open source applications through the entire work flow. Again, this low cost approach means that the methods should be available to nearly any researcher. One of the stages in Mark's procedures draws inspiration from an earlier post on this site regarding the transformation of structure from motion point clouds to real world coordinates. Mark simplified and clarified the process. This was exciting for me because it was Mark's earlier work with photosynth that stimulated my interests in KAP and structure from motion photogrammetry.

Over on Cris Benton's KAP Discussion Board, I recently ran into an article on applications of kite aerial photography (KAP) in archaeology on the Yucatan Peninsula by Oscar Frey that appeared in a Drachen Foundation publication entitled Discourse. I was particularly interested in cross-eyed stereo figures of the site of Dzibilchaltun that appeared on page 29 of Frey's article. The images seemed to illustrate well the architecture. Thus, I decided I would see if I had images in my archive that would be suitable for the method. Cross-eyed stereo images take some practice to view, but the method has the advantage that no special glasses are required and color is represented faithfully.

Thanks to kite historian Andrea Casalboni for directing me to this paper.

Maude, Keith (1985) "How to Rise Quickly in Field Archaeology" Popular Archaeology.

This is an 86 image planar panorama created by means of kite aerial photography.A Fled kite was used to lift a Canon S90 camera that was taped to a Gent-X picavet. The camera was fired by means of the Ultraintervalometer CHDK script. The resulting images were downsampled by 50%. The planar panorama was rendered in Autopano Giga. The planar panorama is displayed on the GigaPan website. To view the image at the GigiaPan website, click their logo on the interface below.

Recently I have been hunkerd down building 3D models of large archaeological sites using the application Photoscan to processing images captured by kite aerial photography (KAP). Though I need to submit some posts on this work, I can report that the method works very well. While processing KAP images with PhotoScan, I've been wondering if it is possible to return to images in my archive that were taken during excavation and reconstruct 3D models from them. For example, while excavating at the site of Jiskairumoko we took lots of overhead photographs of the units. We did this with the aim of georeferencing the images and mapping small artifacts scatters from the photographs. That effort in planimetric 2D photogrammetry worked well. However, I've been awake at night wondering if it is possible possible to reconstruct 3D models from these images? Yesterday, I took some time to find out; turns out it works pretty well. Some examples are shown below. These images were captured in 2002.



These images below were captured in 2001 by Nico Tripcevich. These images were taken specifically with the aim of generating a 3D model. Nico made a nice panoramic object model, and these images processed very well in Photoscan.


One thing I would do differently to improve model building, is to ensure that all space within the unit is covered by at least two photographs. In the upper two pictures, I had to use a smooth geometry building routine that filled in some holes. I don't think that the model is a great departure from reality. However, had there been paired images covering the entire excavation, I could have used an exact reconstruction method.

On 18 June 2010, at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, I delivered the "First Workshop on Archaeophotogrammetry: An Introduction to Photogrammetry for Archaeology". The workshop had three foci: 1) the use of stereo and structure from motion photogrammetry as applied to mapping archaeological remains, 2) the development of work flows that are based in either free or open source software, and 3) the use of KAP as a method to obtain high quality aerial photographs of large archaeological sites. Among those who attended the workshop, there was great interest in both open source processing and KAP based image capture.

The image below shows the workshop attendees watching a camera that is being lifted by a kite. The workshop was facilitated by Professor Dr. Jalh Dulanto (second from the left).



The image below was captured during the brief KAP session just before lunch. The photograph shows one small corner of the soccer field, part of the university garden, and a large archaeological site that is located on campus. Two additional ancient mounds can be seen in the background. These mounds are part of the Maranga archaeological complex, the capital of the Lima polity that existed during the Early Intermediate Period. The largest mound in the background is Huaca San Marcos, the largest adobe structure of the Lima Culture. The photograph was captured with a Canon S90 camera that was mounted on a DuneCam rig and lifted by a 6.5' Rokkaku kite. The winds were about 6mph.

For archaeological and anthropological purposes, it is frequently desirable to transform modeled objects (buildings, mounds, plazas, etc.) into real world coordinates. Doing so properly adjusts the scale, orientation, and location of the model. However, displaying models in raw UTM coordinates can cause problems for computer video cards. This post describes two approaches to a coordinate shift that can solve the problem.

Dr. Jalh Dulanto recently invited Drs. Nathan Craig and Margaret Brown Vega to visit and photograph some archaeological sites in Paracas where he is starting a new long term project. One of the sites we looked was Carhuas. This site is where the famed Carhuas textiles are thought to have been found. Part of the site is composed of a series of rather unusual linear mounds. This architectural form is poorly documented and not widely reported outside of the immediate region. As part of photographing the site, I constructed a planar panorama. This panorama is displayed below as a Seadragon Deep Zoom image. You'll need the plugin to view it. There  are some other Seadragon Deep Zoom panoramas on this site.

The planar panorama of Carhuas is composed of 169 images that were captured with a Canon S90 camera running the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK) Ultra Intervalometer script. The camera was mounted to a GS-1 Gyro Stabilized Ortho-KAP rig, and was lifted by a Becot modified Flow Form 16 kite that was outfitted with two fuzzy tails. The kite was flown on 300lb Dacron line. The wind ranged from 15-21 mph (measured with the new Kestrel 4500 pocket weather meter). To really appreciate the image, I suggest expanding the plugin to full screen.

Small pits are visible throughout the image. These pits are caused by looters. The white colored areas on the left hand side of the image is a shell midden. One can see that a road has been cut through the site, there is also evidence that people drive over the mounds. The site is a favored camping location for summer visitors to the region, Carhuas is a well known beach.

Two days ago, I discovered that MeshLab version 1.2.3a permits the selection and deletion of points in a point cloud! Sadly, the discovery came after I spent $800 on the commercial package VRMesh Studo. I purchased simply to delete points in a point cloud. It turns out that VRMesh studio performs several other tasks that are useful for dealing with SfM point clouds. Yet, still in terms of using SfM (Photosynth and Bundler) as a low-cost tool for 3D modeling this new development in MeshLab essentially solves what many of us recognized as the "missing link". I have downloaded and used MeshLab version 1.2.3a. It opens ASCII ply files produced by either Bundler or Photosynth (and saved with the synth point cloud export tool). I am pleased with the meshing results.

In hopes that the processing techniques would be of use to others, I provide an outline of my methods.

Hanging a camera from a kite line is a risky endeavor, so anything that can minimize those risks is a great advantage to the KAPer. I keep two carabiners in my KAP field kit, and I use them for a variety of line handling tasks. I've run into a number of situations where small hooks on my carabiners caused line handling problems. The first situation involves removing the hoop winder from my belt the second case relates to anchoring the kite line.

Suspension systems are important to obtaining good KAP images. This post discusses two new low cost and easy to fabricate KAP suspension systems. The first device is called the Discavet. The second device is called the S4 rig. Both devices would be wonderful for: student projects, projects on a limited budget, or citizen mapping efforts.


I really like some of the simple and low-cost KAP rigs that have been discussed here. I wanted to share a couple of other low-cost ideas that came my way. These deal specifically with inexpensive and easy to fabricate suspension/motion dampening systems

Frank Taylor, who runs the Google Earth Blog, has added some kite aerial photographs to Google Earth and Google Maps. Read more about it here. The work was done with the help of the good people at Grassroots Mapping. This work is another wonderful example of LEAP (low elevation aerial photography). Over at Benton's Notes on KAP, I started a thread on the Frank Taylor story.



View Larger Map

Balloon Based Geo-Referenced Digital Photo Technique

Many Low elevation aerial photography platforms are sensitive to wind conditions. In the case of KAP and fixed wing R/C, this is very much the case. Kites require wind to fly, and lite aircraft are blown about by strong currents. To help quantify flying conditions, I just picked up a Kestrel 4500 Blue Tooth weather meter, belt clip case, and portable vane mount. This should really help quantify wind conditions. Much like a geotagged photograph, I plan on time calibrating the instrument for use with GPS position logging.

Gary Mortimer created a Ning Network devoted to the use of Photosynth. Much of the early discussion revolves around the use of KAP and fixed wing aerial platforms for generating Photosynth image collections. This network may develop into a very useful resource for discussing aerial photography for structure from motion image processing.

The much anticipated structure from motion package Patch-based Multi-view Stereo (PMVS-2) and a new program called Clustering Views for Multi-View Stereo (CMVS) are now available as windows binaries: CMVS for windows and PMVS-2 for windows. CMVS includes PMVS-2. Much thanks to Yasutaka Furukawa, Jean Ponce, and Pierre Moulon for making this possible.

The processing stages should be:
1) Bundler
2) CMVS
3) PMVS2

The precompiled binaries run, I just need to learn to use them properly. Much to do over the next few days...I'll post more as I gain experience.

This post illustrates low elevation aerial photographic (LEAP) equipment that I use and how this equipment is packed for portability and safety.

I'm looking to build a pole aerial photography (PAP) rig and so I started doing a bit of internet research. My searches did not turn up any dedicated discussion groups like those for KAP and R/C. When I find useful PAP related websites, I bookmark and tag them for delicious. There are frequent rumblings about PAP in real estate photography circles, but nothing comprehensive. The Flickr Pole Aerial Photography group has the best discussion of Lightweight pole rigs that I'm aware of. The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog has a good review of one PAP system.

The rig I'm looking to built requires:

• vertical tilt
• video out
• zoom
• shutter

Controller and Rig Frame
I'm thinking about implementing a DuneCam aerial controller as a light weight remote. I already use the DuneCam system for my KAP rig, and I'd like to take advantage of the same ground controller. The DuneCam system supports all of the functions that I'm looking for in this PAP rig. From Brooxes.com, I ordered a Utility Frame and basic servo. This camera connector for graphite carp pole looked pretty nice. For the connection point, I'm probably going to emulate this design.

Camera Video, Zoom, and Shutter Cable
Turns out that my G11 camera sends video out via the USB port. To remotely control the camera via CHDK USB remote, I have to send power to the USB cable. David Mitchell tells me that it is possible to perform both tasks via the USB. On this same thread, I've also been getting help from Scott Armitage, the maker of the DuneCam. It looks like I'll need an HTC ExtUSB connector. To this, for the CHDK USB remote I'll send power over pins 1 and 5, and for the video out I'll use pins 10 and 6. The HTC ExtUSB connector with breakout board was back ordered, so I'm going to try to solder straight on the connector. We shall see.



Pole
In terms of poles, I see that many people are using carp fishing poles. Charles Benton It looks like the 13m Ron Thompson Power Tool is a good candidate. I ordered the Ron Thompson 13m Power Pole.


The image above shows the three carp poles that Cris Benton uses:
Leeda 11m Assasin II
Ron Thompson 11m
Ron Thompson 13m Power Pole

Pole aerial photography (PAP) is probably the most reliable means of low-altitude aerial photography. The limit of PAP is the length and stability of the pole. Many PAPers rely heavily upon carp fishing poles. I obtained a Ron Tompson 13m power pole for use in PAP.

A HawkEye fixed wing aerial platform was obtained for use in aerial photographic mapping of large spaces.This aerial platform will permit the capture of photographs is low and no wind settings.The equipment compliments the existing KAP systems which are well suited for high wind settings.

Low altitude small format aerial photography requires some kind of remote shutter release. I'm a user of Canon's, and the G11 is presently the camera I use for aerial work. I am presently aware of three camera controllers that permit shutter and zoom. As I become aware of additional systems, I'll include them here.

The URBI R/C interface with zoom works with a suite of cameras, and even allows zoom with some Canon Powershot cameras.

The gentLED family of products is another possible solution for controlling a camera remotely. I have a gentLED Focus on my DuneCam KAP rig. I like the fact that the gentLED products are so light weight (9g). It looks like the gentLED CHDK2 has zoom capabilities as well, but I've yet to try it out. Both the URBI and the gentLED CHDK2 connect to an r/c receiver.
CAMremote works with several cameras including my G11. CAMremote has a wide range of functions that includes shutter, zoom, shutter speed, and aperture.

EndNote is a bibliographic database. It is not a spatial database. However, lots of spatial information are contained within literature, and the communication of spatial knowledge generally requires some writing. Writing for academic contexts requires citation of appropriate sources, thus EndNote is relevant to the AnthSpace mission.

In this post, over time, I will provide some relevant formatting adjustments that I have found useful for implementing EndNote in anthropological writing.

This post describes the process of recording surface artifacts by means of geotagged and hierarchically coded photographs.

I am now using pole aerial photography (PAP) for generating structure from motion (SfM) point clouds. My early attempts to use PAP were not successful. I believe this is because the angles between the photographs was too great and thus the images could not be linked and camera orientations could not be solved. Recently, I have begun using the bubble level on the stadia rod and the image collections are solving well.

The lens of the newly acquired Canon G11 camera was calibrated. This calibration will correct for lens distortion and permit the use of images created by the camera with PhotoModeler Scanner. Two calibrations were produced one calibration with the lens zoomed to its widest setting and another calibration with the lens zoomed to its longest setting. The focal length of wide angle of the Canon G11 is 6.21mm. The focal length of the zoom is 29.38mm.

The Canon G11 will be used for pole aerial photography (PAP) and kite aerial photography (KAP).

4 image panorama of the Fortaleza de Cerro Colorado, Huaura Valley, Peru. Ford Hilux serves as scale.

3 image KAP panorama of the shell midden at Choque Ispana, El Paraiso, Huacho, Peru. Image assembled with Microsoft ICE.

This post details my first successful DuneCam script. DuneCam is a KAP system designed by Scott Armitage. My DuneCam rig was built by Peter Bults at the KAPshop. The DuneCam permits pan and tilt functions from a ground controller. The unit also has a video output on the ground controller. The DuneCam can be controlled by scripts. In the DuneCam manual, Scott provides information on the scripting functions. I wrote a script that brings the camera to level, pans 360º, during the pan the camera takes a photograph at roughly every 25º (5%), tilts down 30º, repeats the pan and shoot, tilts another 30º, repeats the pan and shoot, points straight down, and takes a final nadir shot.

Equipment:
Digital Camera
Hand held GPS receiver (optional, for geotagging the photos)
Numbered Targets (orange cones, bright plastic plates, cut piece of plastic, or other equivalently noticeable object)
Mapping Equipment (High accuracy GPS or total station)
Laptop Computer

Software:
Structure from motion image processor (Microsoft's Photosynth or Noah Snavely's Bundler)
Geotagging program optional (Friedemann Schmidt's GeoSetter)
Point cloud viewing and measurement software (Menci's ScanView)
Coordinate transformation software (Graticule 3D)
Text editor (Notepad++)
1.1.
Place numbered targets on the surface or object that is to be recorded.
Because the numbered targets have to be located in the point cloud, it
is advisable to use numbered targets of colors that contrast strongly
with the surface of object that is to be recorded. Because of the way
that the points will be measured later, the first numbered point should
be numbered 0. This is because during the measurement process described
under 2.10 ScanView
begins its automatic numbering at 0. If for some reason, it is
absolutely necessary to begin numbering at 1, the measurements made in ScanView
can be renumbered--but do not forget to do this. When placing the
numbered targets, be sure that they will be visible from a number of
different shooting angles. It is generally useful to make a sketch map
that illustrates the location of the numbered targets.

1.2.
Start a small hand held GPS and keep it running throughout the entire
duration of photo shoot. This GPS data will be used to geotag the
photographs. Note that in order for geotagging to solve properly, the
clocks of the GPS and the camera must be perfectly synchronized. This
calibration of the camera's clock should be performed prior to taking
any photographs.

1.3. Following general guidelines for structure
from motion photography, capture images of the surface or object that
is to be recorded. Ensure that between each of the photographs there
are low angles (<15°) and that overlap is high (>70%). Be sure to
take detailed photographs of the numbered targets. Consider doing this
by zooming in on or shooting them with a long lens. These detailed
shots are required to get good representation of the numbered targets
in the point cloud.

1.4. Map the numbered targets with a survey
instrument. This may be done with either a high accuracy GPS or an
accurately coordinated total station.

1.5. Collect the numbered targets. The fieldwork stage is complete.

2.1 Load the photographs onto the computer.

2.2.
If geotagging the images, download the GPS data from the hand held
receiver. Geotag the photographs and apply any additional information
to the EXIF headers (i.e. who took the photographs). GeoSetter is a free program that can be used to geotag the images.

2.3. Downsize the photographs to the appropriate dimensions for the given structure from motion processor that will be used. Photosynth downsamples images to 2 megapixels. Bundler has processed images as large as 3.8 megapixels. Determine the megapixel dimensions by multiplying the height by the width. Megapixel = one million pixels.

2.4. Submit the downsampled image collection to the structure from motion processor. If using Photosynth, simply load the images into the Photosynth interface and begin processing. If using Bundler, there is additional information on installation and image processing here.

2.5.
From the high accuracy GPS or total station, download to the computer
the files that contain the mapped location of the numbered targets.

2.6.
Generate a text file that contains the targets with their corresponding
numbers. Do not include a header row. The format of the text file
should be as follows:
ID X Y Z

2.7. Once the structure from motion processor is complete obtain the point cloud files. If the images were processed with Photosynth, then obtain the point cloud by using the free Photosynth Point Cloud Exporter. When using this tool, export the point cloud as an ASCII ply file. If the images were processed with Bundler,
then look in the bundle directory and copy the ply file with the
highest number. Past this file into the directory where other files
related to the model are stored (i.e. the directory that contains the
text file with the mapped coordinates of the numbered targets).

2.8. From the ply file, delete the header information. All that should remain are six columns of data in the following format:
X Y Z R G B

2.9. After removing the header information, save the file as a text file.

2.10. Using the free program ScanView,
open inspect the text file that contains the point cloud information.
Explore the point cloud until all, or most, of the numbered targets are
located. Look for the groups of points that represent the numbered
targets. Once the numbered targets are located, use the ScanView measure tool to obtain the XYZ values for the appropriate point. Do this for each of the numbered targets.

2.11.
In the Scan View Measure dialog box, select all of the measured points
and click the copy button. Open a text editor, like the free Notepad++,
and select paste. This will produce a tab delimited array according to
the following format:
ID X Y Z

2.12. Save this file that contains the modeled coordinates representing the location of the numbered targets.

2.13. Close the point cloud file from ScanView, and then open this file in Excel. The format of the file should be:
X Y Z R G B

2.14.
Add a new column before the X column and add three new columns before
the R column. If B = a blank column, then the file should have the
following format:
B X Y Z B B B R G B

2.15. Above the very
first line of the file, add a new row for each of the numbered targets.
For example, if there are 10 numbered targets then add 10 new rows. In
these new rows, add the information from the file that was saved in
step 2.6, the file that contains the modeled coordinates of the numbered
targets. Add the value 0 into each of the blank columns that are
between the Z and the R column. For each of the numbered targets, add
the value 255 into each of the R G and B columns respectively.

2.16.
Beginning with the first number higher than the highest numbered
target, use the fill functions in Excel to give numbers to each of the
the renaming records that make up the points forming the point cloud.

2.17.
For each of the three empty columns that are between the Z and the R
column, add the value 0, and copy this value to each of the records
that make up the point cloud. Once these edits are made, save two
versions of the file. Where = the name of the file, save
one version as "_proc" and save the other version as
"_RGB". Close both of the files.

2.18. Now the files are properly formatted the "_proc" file will be passed to Java Graticule 3D where the Helmert coordinate transformation will be performed. The "_RGB" will be used later.

2.19.
Open the free program Java Graticule 3D. Click on the menu
"Transformation" and select 3D. A new window will open. This is the
CoordTrans program. From the CoordTrans window, under
"Transformationsarten:" be sure that 3D is selected. Click on the drop
down menu, and select 9-Parametertransformation-3D (Mx, My, Mz, Rx, Ry,
Rz, Tx, Ty, Tz). Click on the "Dateil" menu, select "Import
Startsystem", and browse to the edited point cloud file
"_proc". If the file is large, it may take a few minutes
for the file to load. Be patient. Once the file has loaded, look at the
first few records and ensure that they represent the numbered targets
that were entered earlier.

2.20. Once the "Startsystem" file
"_proc" loads, click the "Datel" menu, select "Import
Zielsystem" and brows to the surveyed control point file created in
step 2.17. The file should load quickly. Ensure that the coordinates for
the mapped numbered targets are present and correct.

2.21. Click
the "Berechnung starten" button and wait for CoordTrans to perform the
transformation. Once the transformation is complete, click on the
Transformation tab at the bottom of the window. Compare the coordinates
of the modeled numbered targets against the coordinates of the mapped
numbered targets. The values should be very close to one another. If
they are, then click the "Datei" menu, select "Export Transformation",
browse to where the file should be saved, name the file properly, and
save the file. The suggested name of the file is "_trans"

2.22.
From Excel, open the exported file "_trans" and open the
file "_RGB". From the file, "_RGB" copy the
colums that contain the RGB information and paste those values into the
file "_trans". The file "_trans" should now
have the form of:
ID X Y Z OX OY OZ R G B

2.23. Add a header
row with the appropriate column names and save the file. If importing
into ArcGIS, save an additional copy of the file as an Excel file.
Close both of the these files. The file "_trans" contains
the properly transformed point cloud. This file can be imported into a
GIS by loading the table and displaying XY data. Remember that northing
is Y and easting is X.

The image below shows a a blue structure
from motion point cloud and a green total station point cloud. Using
the procedures outlined above, the blue structure from motion point
cloud was properly oriented in real world space.

The following text was posted by Mark Willis on the Photosynth forum page. The post really got me interested in the potentials of Photosynth, and then in to Bundler, and other structure from motion (SfM) applications.

For use in mapping large archaeological objects, new close-range aerial photographic equipment is now added to the AnthSpace infrastructure. The equipment is for kite aerial photography (KAP). The setup consists of the following items:

Camera: Canon PowerShot G11 (running CHDK)
Rigs: DuneCam Compact (w. GentLED Focus), GS-1 Gyro Servo Ortho Rig (custom experimental design by Peter Bults at the KapShop)
Kites: Becot modified Sutton Flowform 16 (w. two fuzzy tails), Rokkaku 6.5'
Line: 500m Dacron line, large hoop winder, carabiner and line loop

Except for the camera, all equipment was purchased by me from the KapShop.

As part of Proyecto Awqa Pacha, I have begun creating and posting large panoramas of forts. The image below is one example. Many other examples can be seen at this link.