Public Lab Research note

Use of Quadcopter to Document Rock Alignments and Geoglyphs

by rmark | August 31, 2013 00:54 31 Aug 00:54 | #9082 | #9082

The use of a radio-controlled DJI Phantom quadcopter with a GoPro camera has proved to be a valuable tool to help document features best seen from the air. The GoPro camera can be set for interval photography (e.g. every 5 seconds) and the fisheye image distortion can be reasonably corrected in Photoshop. This approach minimizes impact on sensitive sites by eliminating the need to walk all over them.

See examples at http://www.rupestrian.com/quadcopter.html and http://www.rupestrian.com/stitching-air-photos.html

g0020015cr1000.jpg

5 Comments

  
Comment Author Profile Picture mathew commented about 11 years ago

Neat. Photoshop is very capable, but you might try using Hugin to do the barrel distortion, since its open source and easier to script. Here's a good tutorial on eliminating barrel distortion in GoPro images using Hugin: http://www.fotovlieger.nl/techniek/gopro_lens_correction_with_hugin

Reply to this comment...


  
rmark commented about 11 years ago

Thanks. Options now include GoPro camera/lens correction modules in Photoshop and in Dxo. These became available after the images posted above.

Reply to this comment...


  
STAndrews00 commented almost 11 years ago

rmark, I am looking for quadcoptor enthusiest and engineers to work on a very cool project, let me know if you are interested!

Reply to this comment...


  
rmark commented almost 11 years ago

STAndrews00, send me more information: rockart@infomagic.net.

Reply to this comment...


  
Thomas12345 commented almost 9 years ago

Hey, if you are still looking for more information how to get good camera, here's the good resource: http://bestquadwithcamera.com/tips-and-guides/best-quadcopter-fpv-cameras/

Reply to this comment...


Login to comment.

Share

Public Lab is open for anyone and will always be free. By signing up you'll join a diverse group of community researchers and tap into a lot of grassroots expertise.

Sign up