A free tutorial on creating Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) from Photosynth point clouds is now available online. The tutorial focus on using mostly free and Open Source software to create detailed georeferenced 3D models from low altitude aerial photographs that have been processed in Structure from Motion (SfM) software like that found in Photosynth and Bundler. Each step of the process is documented in text and illustrations. All of the datasets used and created during for the tutorual are provided for reference.
The tutorial is available here: palentier.blogspot.com
Comments
Mark,
I recognize that you are not responsible for the opensource software that exports the point cloud, but I have tried it in the last week on three different machines, and it crashes at the point after I enter the webpage of the Photosynth point cloud. Has the pointcloud export been cut off in some way?
Jørn, thanks for all your hard work on this. I did some early tests of your software and look forward to seeing what this latest version can do. -Mark
@ionut You can read about how the process works at http://photosynth.net/background.aspx . There is open source software which creates similar results here: http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/bundler/
@kamu You're right, several of the steps can be streamlined with scripts. As for your results, did you compare them with my reference files?
@Jørn, Thank you. Hopefully your software will make the process obsolete.
@gary I wouldn't be surprised if some links were missing... Considering all the typos I'm now noticing.